Commission on Political Debates holds talks with Inter-Party Committee

The event slated for November 20th, 2021, will be hosted at the International Conference Center.

The debate will bring together aspirants seeking mandate from Gambian electorates as the Commission on Political Debate provide the avenue through which candidates would share their policies and programmes.

The objective is to promote accountability, peace and stability during the electoral period.

Thus, the Commission seeks partnership with the inter-party committees and other key stakeholders such as the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to expedite the full cooperation and participation of all parties in the upcoming presidential debate.

At a meeting held recently, some members of the inter-party committee acknowledged that political debates were almost non-existent prior to the 2016 presidential debates.

This, they said, was to the nature of political leadership at the time and the risk associated in providing neutral policy discourse.

The increase in the number of political parties coupled with overwhelming interest of Gambians in politics, has necessitated the need to have an alternative independent platform away from traditional political party rallies for aspirants to engage in substantive policy dialogue.

Raymond Esebagbon, Resident Director National Democratic Institute (NDI), expressed delight to be associated with the event, noting that in an election season there is need for everyone to be involved.

 “Elections are all about selecting someone who will pilot the affairs of the country for the next five years. In a competition of this nature where you have different political party building interest and coming into the arena to just contest for one seat, ultimately the decision will be made by Gambians. So key actors need to be engaged by the voters.” he explained.

He further thanked the inter-party committee for making the meeting possible.