{"id":94471,"date":"2026-02-19T18:21:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T18:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/darboe-on-ex-udp-members-political-choice-not-betrayal"},"modified":"2026-02-19T18:53:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T18:53:57","slug":"darboe-on-ex-udp-members-political-choice-not-betrayal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/darboe-on-ex-udp-members-political-choice-not-betrayal","title":{"rendered":"Darboe on Ex-Udp Members: Political Choice, not Betrayal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong> <\/span><b>The Secretary General and Party Leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP), ANM Ousainu Darboe, has spoken publicly on the departure of several former party members, among them Kanifing Municipal Council Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Speaking in an interview on State of Affairs aired on QTV Gambia, Darboe rejected suggestions that Bensouda was a \u201cseasonal politician,\u201d noting that he had been actively involved in the party since 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTalib was not seasonal. Of course, you cannot have the secretary, the organising secretary of a party, being seasonal,\u201d Darboe said.<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether Bensouda\u2019s exit amounted to a betrayal, Darboe dismissed the notion, stressing that political affiliation is a matter of personal choice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen a person makes a choice of his political affiliation, I do not consider that as a betrayal. I shouldn\u2019t go after him to cajole him because he is not indispensable,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p>While acknowledging that some members had left the party, the UDP leader maintained that its core support base remained intact. He added that several of those who departed had previously been active in the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction and only joined the UDP in 2018, when they believed the party was gaining control of the government.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing comments by Lamin J. Darboe suggesting the UDP struggles with internal democracy, Darboe said members who feel dissatisfied are free to leave.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf he were a member, or anybody is a member of any party, and you find that that party is unable to manage its internal democracy, you have nothing to do with that party,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n<p>Darboe also reflected on the departure of Ebrima Dibba, describing it as personally upsetting but politically inconsequential.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt shocked me not because his departure impacted on the fortunes of the party, but because of the personal relationship I had with him. But politically, has it really impacted me? No,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Reaffirming the UDP\u2019s broad-based character, Darboe emphasized that the party remains open to all Gambians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe UDP is a mass movement and a mass party. Even if I say, \u2018Look, you are not coming to the party,\u2019 and you decide to vote for it, can I do anything about that? I cannot do anything about that,\u201d he concluded.<\/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. The Secretary General and Party Leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP), ANM Ousainu Darboe, has spoken publicly on the departure of several former party members, among them Kanifing Municipal Council Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda. Speaking in an interview on State of Affairs aired on QTV Gambia, Darboe rejected suggestions that Bensouda [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":94470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,10],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-94471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-parties","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>Darboe on Ex-Udp Members: Political Choice, not Betrayal - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Gambia. The Secretary General and Par ...\" \/>\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\/darboe-on-ex-udp-members-political-choice-not-betrayal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Darboe on Ex-Udp Members: Political Choice, not Betrayal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Gambia. 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