{"id":92717,"date":"2025-12-26T19:31:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T19:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/cham-jnr-votes-are-not-hereditary-property"},"modified":"2025-12-26T19:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T19:44:09","slug":"cham-jnr-votes-are-not-hereditary-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/cham-jnr-votes-are-not-hereditary-property","title":{"rendered":"Cham JNR: \u201cVotes are not Hereditary Property\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>MC Cham Jnr., business councilor at the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), has ramped up his critique of opposition leadership claims, dismissing reliance on past electoral performance as outdated.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cVotes are not hereditary property; they must be earned anew at every election,\u201d Cham stated, stressing that political parties must adapt to evolving voter behavior and the national mood.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement shared on his official Facebook page on Thursday, Cham directly responded to Dr. Ismaila Ceesay\u2019s assertion that excluding the United Democratic Party (UDP) from coalitions would result in failure, describing it as \u201cintellectually lazy and politically obsolete.\u201d He argued that focusing on past vote share ignores current realities, noting, \u201cSecuring 25 percent in a previous election does not make any party indispensable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cham presented alternative coalition scenarios, saying, \u201cRemove 25 percent from 100 percent, and 75 percent remains. Half of that is 37.5 percent, more than sufficient for a winning coalition without the UDP.\u201d He added that the UDP\u2019s current appeal has declined: \u201cIn reality, the UDP today would struggle to command even 20 percent, such has been the erosion of its appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Highlighting the importance of credible leadership, Cham stressed, \u201cCoalitions succeed when they rally around the most electable and credible leadership available now, not when they indulge inflated claims to past relevance.\u201d He linked opposition anxiety to Mayor Bensouda\u2019s growing influence, asserting, \u201cAny coalition led by Mayor Bensouda would defeat Adama Barrow decisively, and the National People\u2019s Party knows it. That is the real source of the fear, the desperation, and the noise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The exchange underscores mounting debates within the political sphere as The Gambia approaches the 2026 elections.<\/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. MC Cham Jnr., business councilor at the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), has ramped up his critique of opposition leadership claims, dismissing reliance on past electoral performance as outdated. \u201cVotes are not hereditary property; they must be earned anew at every election,\u201d Cham stated, stressing that political parties must adapt to evolving voter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":92716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-92717","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>Cham JNR: \u201cVotes are not Hereditary Property\u201d - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"MC Cham Jnr., business councilor at the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), has ramped up his critique of opposition le ...\" \/>\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\/cham-jnr-votes-are-not-hereditary-property\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cham JNR: \u201cVotes are not Hereditary Property\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MC Cham Jnr., business councilor at the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), has ramped up his critique of opposition le ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/cham-jnr-votes-are-not-hereditary-property\" \/>\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=\"2025-12-26T19:31:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-26T19:44:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766765569.51466.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\/cham-jnr-votes-are-not-hereditary-property#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/cham-jnr-votes-are-not-hereditary-property\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Cham JNR: \u201cVotes are not Hereditary Property\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-26T19:31:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-26T19:44:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/cham-jnr-votes-are-not-hereditary-property\"},\"wordCount\":287,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/cham-jnr-votes-are-not-hereditary-property#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766765569.51466.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\/cham-jnr-votes-are-not-hereditary-property#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/cham-jnr-votes-are-not-hereditary-property\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/cham-jnr-votes-are-not-hereditary-property\",\"name\":\"Cham JNR: \u201cVotes are not Hereditary Property\u201d - 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