Africa-Press – Gambia. UDP leader Ousainu Darboe has emphatically denied speculation that he promised to make Talib Bensouda the presidential candidate of the party in the 2026 presidential election.
Speaking in a Standard exclusive yesterday, Darboe dismissed the talk as “fabrications aimed at sowing discord”.
He stated: “Do I own the party? If anybody is fantasying on that I think then it’s unfortunate. I don’t own the party. I cannot guarantee anybody that you will be the leader of the party. If I can give that guarantee then I wouldn’t have applied. I would just say look, I am taking it because no other person would have applied for it. But it is because I don’t own the party, it is the membership of the party that decide who should hold any particular position in the party.”
He said the only authority he has which the constitution of the party gives him is to nominate some people into the national executive committee of the party and that he cannot appoint anybody to be the organising secretary, flag bearer, or leader of the party.
“I think anyone who is fanning that, you are just misleading people and insulting members of the United Democratic Party, that they are just there figuratively as members and office bearers but I decide who should be what and who shouldn’t be what. I think that is an insult to the members of the UDP.”
A close aide of the Kanifing mayor claimed that Darboe promised Bensouda his backing to become the UDP presidential candidate. Although the spokesman of the mayor’s new movement thrashed the allegation by the aide, he was non-committal in addressing the question saying whatever Darboe and Bensouda discussed will remain with them.
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