{"id":93679,"date":"2026-02-10T18:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/umc-leader-plays-down-early-survey-showing-modest-support"},"modified":"2026-02-10T19:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:37:12","slug":"umc-leader-plays-down-early-survey-showing-modest-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/umc-leader-plays-down-early-survey-showing-modest-support","title":{"rendered":"UMC Leader Plays down Early Survey Showing Modest Support"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong> <\/span><b>Talib Ahmed Bensouda, the mayor of the Kanifing Municipal Council and leader of the newly formed Unite Movement for Change, on Friday sought to minimize the significance of early survey results suggesting the party had attracted about 2 percent public support just weeks after its launch.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Speaking in an interview with Skypower Radio and Television Services, Mr. Bensouda said the findings, released by the Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies (CepRass), were based on data collected when the party was barely three weeks old and had not even been formally included in the survey.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t take that seriously because UMC was barely three weeks old when that came up,\u201d he said. \u201cWe actually spoke with the surveyors, and they told us UMC was not considered in their surveys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Bensouda said the party appeared in the results largely because respondents repeatedly volunteered its name, even as many Gambians remained unfamiliar with the movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven today, some people who support me don\u2019t know the name of the party,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a lot of work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, he described the early visibility as encouraging, noting that UMC had outperformed several long-established political parties despite its brief existence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is impressive for us is that only three weeks after our announcement, we came ahead of parties that were established for decades,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is quite an impressive showing for three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Bensouda said the party\u2019s priority remains building grassroots structures and engaging voters directly, rather than focusing on early polling numbers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are concentrating on organizing on the ground and connecting meaningfully with Gambians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Gambia<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. Talib Ahmed Bensouda, the mayor of the Kanifing Municipal Council and leader of the newly formed Unite Movement for Change, on Friday sought to minimize the significance of early survey results suggesting the party had attracted about 2 percent public support just weeks after its launch. Speaking in an interview with Skypower [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":93678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-93679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","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>UMC Leader Plays down Early Survey Showing Modest Support - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Gambia. 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