{"id":81661,"date":"2025-07-09T07:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T07:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/udp-lawmakers-reject-2024-draft-constitution-due-to-trust-issues"},"modified":"2025-07-09T07:49:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T07:49:38","slug":"udp-lawmakers-reject-2024-draft-constitution-due-to-trust-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-lawmakers-reject-2024-draft-constitution-due-to-trust-issues","title":{"rendered":"UDP Lawmakers Reject 2024 Draft Constitution Due to Trust Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Members of the United Democratic Party (UDP) in the National Assembly have formally opposed the 2024 draft constitution during its second reading, urging their parliamentary colleagues to reject advancing the bill to the consideration stage.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>UDP lawmakers argue that the draft constitution fails to reflect the aspirations of the Gambian people. Modou Lamin B Bah, UDP National Assembly Member for Banjul North, expressed strong opposition, emphasizing that his constituents have instructed him to reject the bill. He also highlighted a fundamental lack of trust from the ruling majority caucus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn behalf of my people, I am not supporting this document today, tomorrow, and forever. And that is my honest opinion, and this is the opinion of my people. We would be very selfish if we agreed to move this document to another stage,\u201d Bah stated.<\/p>\n<p>Hon. Alhagie S. Darboe, Minority Leader and UDP member for Brikama North, echoed the sentiment, pointing to a perceived lack of good faith from the majority caucus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat draft is not people-centered; that draft emanated from the executive. If you are now compelling and telling us to accept it, so that we can do the needful amendments. But we suggested that in 2020, and you did not accept. You said we had the majority in 2020, and you had the minority, but now it is the reverse; you have the majority, and we have the minority. If you cannot accept and trust us to go to the consideration stage and do the amendments, because we have the number, now you also have the number. You are telling us we go there. How can we trust you when you don\u2019t trust me (in 2020)?\u201d Darboe said.<\/p>\n<p>Assan Touray, UDP Member for Bakau, also rejected the bill, arguing that over 120 clauses had been changed from the 2020 draft without adequate national consultation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the representative of the people, after going through the 2024 and 2020 draft constitutions, I have realized that one hundred and twenty-plus clauses have been changed, which is unexplainable to the nation, and there was no consultation on it. On that note, I want to make it very clear to the nation that I am 100% against this 2024 draft constitution,\u201d he declared<\/p>\n<p>Hon. Alfusainey Ceesay, representing Sami Constituency, criticized the process as rushed and ill-considered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know that the constitution cannot favor everybody, but this 2024, I think they put the cart before the horse. I am totally against this 2024 draft constitution,\u201d Ceesay stated.<\/p>\n<p>Yahya Gasama, Member for Kiang East, declared that the draft fails to reflect the will of the people. \u201cI want to inform this August Assembly that, should anything happen to me before a vote is taken, please account for my vote as one of those people who said no to this,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n<p>Sulayman Saho, representing the Central Badibu constituency, acknowledged the public\u2019s desire for a new constitution but criticized the process.\u201cWe all want Gambia to have a new constitution, but the number one person who owes the Gambian people the responsibility is the president of the Republic. We cannot support this because the process was not democratic,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n<p>Other UDP lawmakers voiced similar concerns. Hon. Lamin J. Sanneh of Brikama South cited a \u201clack of trust\u201d in the committee responsible for the constitution\u2019s consideration and called for exploring alternative approaches. \u201cThere\u2019s an issue of trust as far as the committee of consideration is concerned, so we definitely want to push this out and look for another alternative,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hon. Musa Badjie, MP for Tallinding Kunjang, emphasized that the draft constitution does not serve the best interests of Gambians.\u201dWe want the Gambian people to understand that this Constitution is not in the best of their interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yahya Menteng Sanyang, Member for Latrikunda Sabiji, reiterated the opposition\u2019s position. Stating, \u201cWe, the opposition, are ready to negotiate but we can only negotiate around the 2020 Draft,\u201d He Said.<\/p>\n<p>Lamin Ceesay, Member for Kiang West, offered a final, unequivocal rejection: \u201cWe have nothing to do for you today other than rejecting this Draft Constitution,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Gambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. Members of the United Democratic Party (UDP) in the National Assembly have formally opposed the 2024 draft constitution during its second reading, urging their parliamentary colleagues to reject advancing the bill to the consideration stage. UDP lawmakers argue that the draft constitution fails to reflect the aspirations of the Gambian people. Modou [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":81660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-81661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-parties","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UDP Lawmakers Reject 2024 Draft Constitution Due to Trust Issues - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Members of the United Democratic Party (UDP) in the National Assembly have formally opposed the 2024 draft constituti ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-lawmakers-reject-2024-draft-constitution-due-to-trust-issues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UDP Lawmakers Reject 2024 Draft Constitution Due to Trust Issues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Members of the United Democratic Party (UDP) in the National Assembly have formally opposed the 2024 draft constituti ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-lawmakers-reject-2024-draft-constitution-due-to-trust-issues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-09T07:18:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-09T07:49:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/07\/sm_1752034670.942707.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-lawmakers-reject-2024-draft-constitution-due-to-trust-issues#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-lawmakers-reject-2024-draft-constitution-due-to-trust-issues\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"UDP Lawmakers Reject 2024 Draft Constitution Due to Trust Issues\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-09T07:18:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-09T07:49:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-lawmakers-reject-2024-draft-constitution-due-to-trust-issues\"},\"wordCount\":693,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-lawmakers-reject-2024-draft-constitution-due-to-trust-issues#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/07\/sm_1752034670.942707.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"parties\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-lawmakers-reject-2024-draft-constitution-due-to-trust-issues#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-lawmakers-reject-2024-draft-constitution-due-to-trust-issues\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-lawmakers-reject-2024-draft-constitution-due-to-trust-issues\",\"name\":\"UDP Lawmakers Reject 2024 Draft Constitution Due to Trust Issues - 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