{"id":89741,"date":"2025-11-09T17:50:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T17:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/presidency-would-be-an-honor-not-desperate-for"},"modified":"2025-11-09T18:55:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T18:55:31","slug":"presidency-would-be-an-honor-not-desperate-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/presidency-would-be-an-honor-not-desperate-for","title":{"rendered":"Presidency would be an Honor not Desperate for"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Talib Ahmed Bensouda, the mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council, has dismissed claims that his newly launched political movement is meant to divide the opposition ahead of The Gambia\u2019s 2026 presidential election.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Mr. Bensouda said his initiative is intended to create a new political platform that fosters unity, renewal, and inclusiveness across the country\u2019s fragmented political landscape.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think it is a move to divide the opposition; the opposition is already divided,\u201d Mr. Bensouda said. \u201cI think a platform like this could potentially bring the opposition together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Bensouda, who has served as mayor since 2018, said the movement seeks to promote internal reform within political parties\u2014particularly leadership renewal and term limits for candidates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we have seen with all political parties, not just the UDP, is when it comes to candidates that represent their parties at elections, it is usually the same candidates and the candidates that founded the parties,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I wanted to chart a new path where we could set a platform, and one of the ingredients of that platform would be, even at the level of candidacies, to have term limits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if his political move was a step toward a presidential bid, Mr. Bensouda said he would welcome the opportunity to serve as president but insisted that ambition was not driving his actions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be an honor and privilege to serve my country as president of the nation, but I\u2019m not desperate to be president,\u201d he said. \u201cI would not just do anything to be president. I want to be president in the right way and on a path that I believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Bensouda added that his movement aims to re-engage disillusioned Gambians, particularly young voters who feel excluded from the political process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis platform is a vehicle for Gambians left on the fringes, such as the youth voter who has been disenfranchised; many of them have voter apathy. They don\u2019t even register to vote. This is to give a voice to the voiceless,\u201d he said.<\/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. Talib Ahmed Bensouda, the mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council, has dismissed claims that his newly launched political movement is meant to divide the opposition ahead of The Gambia\u2019s 2026 presidential election. In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Mr. Bensouda said his initiative is intended to create a new political platform that fosters [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":89740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-89741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","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>Presidency would be an Honor not Desperate for - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Talib Ahmed Bensouda, the mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council, has dismissed claims that his newly launched political ...\" \/>\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\/presidency-would-be-an-honor-not-desperate-for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Presidency would be an Honor not Desperate for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Talib Ahmed Bensouda, the mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council, has dismissed claims that his newly launched political ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/presidency-would-be-an-honor-not-desperate-for\" \/>\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=\"2025-11-09T17:50:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-09T18:55:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/11\/sm_1762701886.572799.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=\"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\/presidency-would-be-an-honor-not-desperate-for#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/presidency-would-be-an-honor-not-desperate-for\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Presidency would be an Honor not Desperate for\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-09T17:50:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-09T18:55:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/presidency-would-be-an-honor-not-desperate-for\"},\"wordCount\":368,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/presidency-would-be-an-honor-not-desperate-for#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/11\/sm_1762701886.572799.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/presidency-would-be-an-honor-not-desperate-for#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/presidency-would-be-an-honor-not-desperate-for\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/presidency-would-be-an-honor-not-desperate-for\",\"name\":\"Presidency would be an Honor not Desperate for - 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