{"id":91059,"date":"2025-11-29T17:30:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T17:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/political-analyst-udp-unlikely-to-give-up-flag-bearer-role"},"modified":"2025-11-29T19:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:21:14","slug":"political-analyst-udp-unlikely-to-give-up-flag-bearer-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/political-analyst-udp-unlikely-to-give-up-flag-bearer-role","title":{"rendered":"Political Analyst: UDP Unlikely to give up Flag-Bearer Role"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>A prominent political analyst has argued that the United Democratic Party, the country\u2019s largest opposition group, should not be expected to surrender the presidential flag-bearer position in any potential coalition ahead of the 2026 election.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Biran Gai, a political science lecturer at the University of The Gambia, said the arithmetic of opposition politics makes such an expectation unrealistic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is impossible,\u201d Mr. Gai said in an interview. \u201cYou need to analyze the opposition and what they have to bring to the table. All these need to be put into perspective. You do not expect a party that won 0.001 percent of the vote to be given the flag-bearership of the opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said any coalition effort must be \u201cobjective, constructive, and rational,\u201d adding that meaningful cooperation is possible only if opposition parties share a clear conviction that political change is needed.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Gai warned that a fragmented opposition would be President Adama Barrow\u2019s greatest advantage in 2026. \u201cOnce they are divided, that is a win for the NPP,\u201d he said, referring to the National People\u2019s Party.<\/p>\n<p>He emphasized that the opposition cannot unseat Mr. Barrow without the UDP\u2019s electoral strength. \u201cWithout the UDP, there would be no change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Some opposition figures have suggested they could defeat the incumbent even without forming a coalition, pointing to their combined gains in recent parliamentary and local government elections. Mr. Gai dismissed that reasoning, arguing that national dynamics differ significantly from local contests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey can say that, but the dynamics for parliamentary elections are different from the presidential election. Voting in parliamentary elections may not necessarily be along partisan lines, but it could also be that they identify with the individual. That dynamic also exists,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Although Mr. Barrow\u2019s popularity has waned amid public frustration over the country\u2019s economic conditions, Mr. Gai questioned whether economic dissatisfaction alone determines voting behavior in The Gambia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo we vote based on the fact that the economy is not doing well, or do we vote on issues, personalities, or partisan basics?\u201d he asked. \u201cFor me, I would say it is based on personality and partisan basis, and that is why it makes it difficult to predict change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that the 2016 election\u2014when Mr. Barrow rose to power at the head of a broad opposition coalition\u2014was exceptional. After nearly eight years in office, he said, the president has become firmly entrenched, and dislodging him would require a similarly unified political front.<\/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. A prominent political analyst has argued that the United Democratic Party, the country\u2019s largest opposition group, should not be expected to surrender the presidential flag-bearer position in any potential coalition ahead of the 2026 election. Biran Gai, a political science lecturer at the University of The Gambia, said the arithmetic of opposition [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":91057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-91059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","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>Political Analyst: UDP Unlikely to give up Flag-Bearer Role - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A prominent political analyst has argued that the United Democratic Party, the country\u2019s largest opposition group, sh ...\" \/>\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\/political-analyst-udp-unlikely-to-give-up-flag-bearer-role\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Political Analyst: UDP Unlikely to give up Flag-Bearer Role\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A prominent political analyst has argued that the United Democratic Party, the country\u2019s largest opposition group, sh ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/political-analyst-udp-unlikely-to-give-up-flag-bearer-role\" \/>\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=\"2025-11-29T17:30:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-29T19:21:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/11\/sm_1764431389.972361.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=\"3 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\/political-analyst-udp-unlikely-to-give-up-flag-bearer-role#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/political-analyst-udp-unlikely-to-give-up-flag-bearer-role\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Political Analyst: UDP Unlikely to give up Flag-Bearer Role\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-29T17:30:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-29T19:21:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/political-analyst-udp-unlikely-to-give-up-flag-bearer-role\"},\"wordCount\":431,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/political-analyst-udp-unlikely-to-give-up-flag-bearer-role#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/11\/sm_1764431389.972361.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/political-analyst-udp-unlikely-to-give-up-flag-bearer-role#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/political-analyst-udp-unlikely-to-give-up-flag-bearer-role\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/political-analyst-udp-unlikely-to-give-up-flag-bearer-role\",\"name\":\"Political Analyst: UDP Unlikely to give up Flag-Bearer Role - 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