National People’s Party (NPP) member Talibo Kongira has argued that the Coalition Management Committee (CMC) does not have the political muscle to remove President Adama Barrow in the upcoming December 5 presidential election without the backing of major opposition parties, particularly the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC).
Speaking on the state of coalition negotiations, Kongira stressed that the absence of heavyweight opposition parties has significantly weakened the coalition’s chances of defeating the incumbent.
“Based on my argument, Fatoumatta Tambajang realised that the coalition has weakened. If you want to remove the sitting president, the incumbent, and you want to unite all political parties, do a campaign without tussle and focus on removing the president,” Kongira said.
He further noted that the coalition would struggle to win the confidence of voters without the participation of parties with established political influence.
“The coalition also failed without support from the UDP, Mama Kandeh, and Essa Faal is no more there. I swear, it is just a name, but it won’t be a strong coalition that will win the trust of people in order to earn their votes to remove the president,” he added.
Kongira maintained that President Barrow has moved beyond the type of political alliances that propelled him to victory in 2016.
“You can’t remove President Adama Barrow from a coalition, and President Adama Barrow is already ahead of you. He has graduated from that for now. He has graduated from alliance as well. We are going to him, PhD alliance,” he said.
