The objective of establishing Coalition 2016 is yielding the opposite of what was intended. The Coalition informed the electorate that they had decided to select a Presidential Candidate who will stand on an Independent ticket and will serve a three year term to enable all parties in the Coalition to contest the following Presidential elections on a level ground for multi-party contest and thus create a genuine multi-party system in the Gambia for posterity.
Now, the incumbent has not only decided to stay in office for five years, but has decided to establish a political party which is to put him up as a Candidate to contest the next Presidential election.
This has left the political parties with Ministerial and other appointments to either cause the Ministers or other appointees to vacate their seats or suppress any ambition to contest elections against the party of the incumbent.
It is therefore not a surprise that some parties have announced their intension to support the incumbent in the next Presidential election and to even consider a merger.
History teaches that when the NCP tried to form an Alliance with the APRC to contest the National Assembly Elections of 2002, the APRC did not accept to support any NCP Candidate when the UDP announced its boycott of the elections.
Ultimately, all the former NCP seats had to be contested under an APRC ticket.
The incumbent has started with the council seats contested under an NPP ticket. The trend will be followed by Foroyaa. The signal is that NPP’s growth will lead to the demise of a number of parties. Which ones are they going to be? The future will tell. Foroyaa will spread the facts as they come.
