Africa-Press – Gambia. The People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) on Sunday adjourned its party congress to Jan. 24, 2026, after failing to secure the quorum required to review and adopt a new party constitution, party officials said.
The congress, part of the party’s 2025 calendar, was held on Dec. 27 and 28 at a hotel in the Senegambia area, drawing party members and invited stakeholders. Despite what organizers described as a strong turnout, the number of delegates present fell short of the legal threshold needed to carry out constitutional changes.
“There is a crowd here; we can proceed with whatever we want,” Halifa Sallah, the party’s secretary general, told delegates. “But we do not want to do whatever we want. We want to do what we should do.”
Mr. Sallah said the decision to adjourn was not a matter of political convenience but a deliberate effort to uphold the party’s own rules and the broader principle of legality.
“Once we start to be above the law, then all of us ultimately will be under dictatorship,” he said. “We prefer to be under the law so we can be equal before the law and become a nation.”
Framing the moment as a test of democratic discipline, Mr. Sallah said nation-building begins with strict adherence to rules, even when doing so causes delay. “That is why it is emphasized if one person is missing and by proceeding will break the law, we will wait for that one person to join us for us to move forward,” he said.
He urged party members to leave the congress encouraged rather than disappointed, arguing that respect for internal party law was central to PDOIS’s political identity.
Observers from the electoral authorities were present, including Cherno M. Jallow, vice chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, and Ansumana Camara, the Kanifing regional electoral officer, underscoring the formal nature of the proceedings.
The adjourned congress is expected to reconvene early next year, when party leaders hope the required quorum will be met to allow debate and adoption of the revised constitution.
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