By Kebba Jeffang
A breakthrough was made at the coalition talks yesterday, Sunday, 9 October 2016, under the auspices of the Gambia Opposition for
Electoral Reform (GOFER), as the opposition parties and the independent have agreed on a method of selecting one presidential candidate to challenge the incumbent
in the 1 December 2016 presidential election.
This development was revealed to the waiting press by Mr. Halifa Sallah, the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS), immediately after the conclusion of the talks that lasted for over three weeks. However, Mr. Sallah said he would not elaborate on the details as to how this selection of a single candidate would be done as it is to be finalised formally.
Mr. Sallah, who was a former Minority Leader of the National Assembly, further disclosed that a press conference is scheduled for Tuesday, 11 October, 2016 to formally unveil the method of selection of the presidential candidate of the united opposition as agreed by the participants at the talks.
The meeting was attended, in alphabetical order, by the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC), Gambia People’s Democratic Party (GPDP), National Convention Party (NCP), National Reconciliation Party (NRP), People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS), Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), United Democratic Party (UDP) and the Independent.
The meeting yesterday is the culmination of the talks which started three weeks ago with three sessions of the conference of presidential candidates considering the different coalition options from the six candidates and two convened by GOFER to review these coalition options.
The nation, however, is eager to know what this united opposition have in store for the electorate in the forthcoming presidential poll.
