{"id":95058,"date":"2026-02-27T07:16:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/information-minister-questions-neutrality-of-apex-initiative"},"modified":"2026-02-27T07:38:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:38:41","slug":"information-minister-questions-neutrality-of-apex-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/information-minister-questions-neutrality-of-apex-initiative","title":{"rendered":"Information Minister Questions Neutrality of Apex Initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong> <\/span><b>The information minister, Ismaila Ceesay, has cast doubt on the political neutrality of Apex Initiative, a group seeking to rally opposition parties into a coalition ahead of the Dec. 5 presidential election.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Speaking during his weekly government update on West Coast Radio, Dr. Ceesay said the group\u2019s claim of nonpartisanship was incompatible with its stated goal of forging a unified front against the ruling party.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrying to form a coalition is politics. It is high politics,\u201d he said. \u201cYou call yourself politically neutral, but you want to come and put parties together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Apex Initiative has presented itself as a civic platform aimed at encouraging opposition unity in the closely watched election. But Dr. Ceesay argued that its involvement in brokering alliances among established political parties undermined its assertion of neutrality.<\/p>\n<p>He suggested that the group was attempting to impose itself on parties with longstanding structures, resources, and independent campaign strategies. \u201cYou just come from anywhere outside, sit in your corner, and say, \u2018I am coming to help them form their coalition,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat is why Apex is dead from inception.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The minister also questioned the group\u2019s transparency, saying its lack of openness would limit its effectiveness. \u201cWe do not even listen to Apex,\u201d he said, adding that he had only recently become aware of its existence. He described the initiative as insignificant in the broader political landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Representatives of Apex Initiative have not publicly responded to the minister\u2019s remarks.<\/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 information minister, Ismaila Ceesay, has cast doubt on the political neutrality of Apex Initiative, a group seeking to rally opposition parties into a coalition ahead of the Dec. 5 presidential election. Speaking during his weekly government update on West Coast Radio, Dr. Ceesay said the group\u2019s claim of nonpartisanship was incompatible [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":95057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-95058","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>Information Minister Questions Neutrality of Apex Initiative - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Gambia. The information minister, Ism ...\" \/>\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\/information-minister-questions-neutrality-of-apex-initiative\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Information Minister Questions Neutrality of Apex Initiative\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Gambia. 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