Africa-Press – Gambia. Mamadi Kurang, the leader of the Youth for Change movement and a former National Assembly candidate, has launched a scathing critique of the People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS), accusing the party of being centered entirely around its veteran figure, Halifa Sallah.
In remarks made during a recent appearance, Kurang said that since the 2021 elections, the party has remained largely inactive and appears to revolve solely around Sallah’s leadership.
“If a person comes to me and asks, is PDOIS about Halifa, and Sadia? If I want to be fair to you, I will say PDOIS is about Halifa,” Kurang said bluntly. “Since 2021 after the elections until December last year, Halifa was in complete hibernation. There was no activity, I saw press conferences, and I attended a few press conferences but I stopped attending because you called me for a press conference and I don’t know what the arguments are. I just came and sat for two hours,” he said.
Kurang further explained that if you head a party or organization and hold an election in 2021, but afterward, the leadership fails to organize any activities, then whenever an initiative is taken on the ground, someone will intervene, saying, This isn’t how PDOIS operates or this shouldn’t be done.
Kurang acknowledged the party’s well-articulated policies but criticized what he described as a deeply centralized and ineffective administration. He alleged that the party’s internal structure allows a few individuals to hold multiple influential roles, stifling broader participation and marginalizing dissenting voices.
“Some people in PDOIS have more than two positions. He himself is the Secretary-General and the Spokesperson no problem. He is doing it good. But there is somebody who is not elected by Congress, she is doing the treasurer work, the administrative and her normal secretariat work. There are a lot of people in the party who want to contribute but this is the reason they will not want to contribute,” he said.
Kurang further claimed that after standing as a National Assembly candidate under the PDOIS banner, he and other candidates were effectively sidelined. He said a group was created in 2022 to engage National Assembly contestants but has remained inactive.
“I am a National Assembly contestant in the party. We have a group that they created in the party and called it the National Assembly. The group was created in 2022, after the election not even one message was sent to that group to tell us what was happening in the party. I met with one of the contestants who told me that he left the party because after the elections no one gets back to him,” he said.
In a particularly pointed claim, Kurang alleged that he was once denied entry into a PDOIS meeting at the party bureau by a secretary, describing the incident as emblematic of what he called a culture of “systematic humiliation” for those who express disagreement.
He also accused Sallah of exerting unilateral control over party rules, alleging that Halifa makes laws and changes them at his will.
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