Africa-Press – Gambia. Lamin Manneh, Deputy External Affairs Secretary of the United Democratic Party (UDP), has urged opposition parties and Gambians from all walks of life to unite in a grand coalition to defeat President Adama Barrow in the 2026 presidential election.
“Work has started towards the 2026 presidential election. UDP can win and will in 2026, but what we want to see is to have a coalition of Gambians from every sector and from most political parties in the opposition, so that we win bigger. So that when we win, we will not be able to run this country with only UDP people, and we must not. We need to bring in every competent Gambian who has something to offer, who has integrity, who has love for this country,” Manneh said in an interview with West Coast Radio.
Citing Nelson Mandela’s leadership style, Manneh stressed the importance of compromise in politics.
“When Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa, and they went for the parliamentary elections, and ANC was gunning for the supermajority, and they lost the supermajority by getting 2% he said, I’m glad we did not have that supermajority, because if we did, we would have been uncompromising. We would have been throwing our weight all over the place. But with this, we will have to discuss and have agreements with other people and other parties, and reach a compromise. Compromise is always important in anything in life, particularly in politics; you can’t have it all your way. There will be times you say, I can live with this, and you go for that. You see, if we have too much power. We will use it, and we’ll use it against people, not for people against people most of the time,” he warned.
Addressing recent internal tensions within the UDP, Manneh revealed that the party has resolved its internal disputes following a meeting convened by party leader Ousainou Darboe with key figures, including Talib Bensouda, Yankuba Darboe, Rohey Malick Lowe, and Landing B. Sanneh.
“When it happened, a lot of people were unhappy when we said, as a family, we solved it very quickly. That’s the good thing about UDP: we will have difficult discussions, we will argue, but we always come to solutions.”
He further confirmed that just last week, Darboe again brought all local government heads together to reaffirm unity and agree on a collective path forward. “Last week, Mr. Darboe brought all of them together again, all the heads of the local government authorities: Landing Sanneh, Rohey Malick Lowe, Talib Ahmed Bensouda, and Yankuba. They had a very long chat, and they agreed on the way forward,” he said.
For More News And Analysis About Gambia Follow Africa-Press
