The manifesto is 68-pages and outlines the party’s blueprint on how to govern the country.
The unveiling of the party’s manifesto document was held at Paradise Suite Hotel in Kololi.
Citizens’ Alliance (CA) party says its commitments are anchored on four pillars which “will be critical in navigating our country’s reversal from underdevelopment and stagnation to the pinnacle of growth, progress, and prosperity.”
The four pillars are: creating economic prosperity and decent Jobs; empowering the Gambian citizenry; promoting good governance and transparency; and ensuring peace, security and stability.
Speaking at the ceremony, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, CA’s secretary general and flagbearer, insisted that their manifesto should not just be a document to fulfill a request but instead offers a real idea as to how the party is planning to govern the country.
“This should not just be another document to fulfill a request that a party should have a manifesto but the manifesto dubbed ‘a contract with the Gambian people’ offers a real idea as to how the party is planning to govern the country.”
Dr. Ceesay said: “We call this document a contract with the Gambia people. And contract must be respected and fulfilled. It must be put into practise when we come into government.”
“If you make a promise, you must fulfill that promise. We don’t want to be a government that doesn’t adhere to contracts we’d signed with the population. It will not tell well for our legacy.”
“Obviously, if you want to govern the country, there is a reason why you want to govern. We don’t want to govern just for the sake of governing but we want to govern because we want to serve our people and this manifesto highlights how we want to serve our people,” he noted.
For his part, CA’s national president, Dominic Mendy, said that their newly launched manifesto is a commitment of CA for the transformation of the country. “…to lift it from underdevelopment to development and security. It would be subjected to evaluation, criticism and analyses,” he said.
He added that a lot of efforts had gone into evolving and generating their document, adding that even though that may be the case it still may not be necessarily the most perfect document but it is by CA to capture the problem scenario of the country.
“This document is also an attempt by CA in consultation with the population of the Gambia to provide and offer solutions. The document is also as a result of an intense internal soul searching and public consultation and advice by the ordinary citizens of the country and professionals subject matter experts.”
According to him, their manifesto is going to be a document that would be understood and reached out to ordinary citizens, adding that it would also be reached out by very highly educated and sophisticated citizens both Gambians and non-Gambians, institutions both in The Gambia and outside.
