{"id":84393,"date":"2025-08-20T06:27:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T06:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/udp-founding-member-decries-erosion-of-internal-party-democracy"},"modified":"2025-08-20T06:32:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T06:32:41","slug":"udp-founding-member-decries-erosion-of-internal-party-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-founding-member-decries-erosion-of-internal-party-democracy","title":{"rendered":"UDP \u201cFounding Member\u201d Decries Erosion of Internal Party Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Edrissa Sanyang, a self-identified founding member of the United Democratic Party (UDP), has issued a stark public critique of the party\u2019s presidential candidate selection process, alleging a significant departure from its foundational democratic principles.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In a Facebook post, Mr. Sanyang contended that the current framework is structurally biased in favor of the incumbent party leader, Ousainou Darboe. To substantiate his claim, he referenced his former role as secretary to a pivotal party committee, \u201cThe Way Forward,\u201d chaired by the late Eminent M.O. Sonko. He stated this committee was expressly vested with the authority to design the procedures for selecting the Central and Selection Committees responsible for choosing presidential candidates.<\/p>\n<p>According to Sanyang, the current leadership, under Mr. Darboe, refused to accept the committee\u2019s proposed document. Instead, he alleges a subsequent rewriting of the party\u2019s constitution that centralized critical authority within the office of the Secretary General\u2014a post long held by Mr. Darboe himself.<\/p>\n<p>This consolidation of power, Sanyang argues, has fundamentally altered the party\u2019s character. He described the UDP\u2019s current structure as having devolved into a \u201ccult-like\u201d hierarchy where the leader wields absolute control, effectively stifling internal dissent and competitive candidacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo wonder since the formation of the UDP, there has never been a change of the party leader and secretary general,\u201d Sanyang stated. \u201cDue to the powers he has, he is able to pick and choose committee members who will do his bidding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He concluded with a nostalgic lament, suggesting that the party has diverged from the vision of its original architects, specifically citing the dedicated efforts of its first administrative secretary, the late Sidia Sanyang. Under the current regime, Sanyang asserted, the UDP has ceased to function as the democratic institution it was originally constituted to be.<\/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. Edrissa Sanyang, a self-identified founding member of the United Democratic Party (UDP), has issued a stark public critique of the party\u2019s presidential candidate selection process, alleging a significant departure from its foundational democratic principles. In a Facebook post, Mr. Sanyang contended that the current framework is structurally biased in favor of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":84392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,10,2366],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-84393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-parties","category-to-homepage","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 \u201cFounding Member\u201d Decries Erosion of Internal Party Democracy - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Edrissa Sanyang, a self-identified founding member of the United Democratic Party (UDP), has issued a stark public cr ...\" \/>\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-founding-member-decries-erosion-of-internal-party-democracy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UDP \u201cFounding Member\u201d Decries Erosion of Internal Party Democracy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Edrissa Sanyang, a self-identified founding member of the United Democratic Party (UDP), has issued a stark public cr ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-founding-member-decries-erosion-of-internal-party-democracy\" \/>\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=\"2025-08-20T06:27:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-20T06:32:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/sm_1755658934.469969.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"885\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"585\" \/>\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=\"2 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-founding-member-decries-erosion-of-internal-party-democracy#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-founding-member-decries-erosion-of-internal-party-democracy\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"UDP \u201cFounding Member\u201d Decries Erosion of Internal Party Democracy\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-20T06:27:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-20T06:32:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-founding-member-decries-erosion-of-internal-party-democracy\"},\"wordCount\":317,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-founding-member-decries-erosion-of-internal-party-democracy#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/sm_1755658934.469969.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"parties\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-founding-member-decries-erosion-of-internal-party-democracy#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-founding-member-decries-erosion-of-internal-party-democracy\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-founding-member-decries-erosion-of-internal-party-democracy\",\"name\":\"UDP \u201cFounding Member\u201d Decries Erosion of Internal Party Democracy - 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