APRC deputy spokesperson
By Buba Gagigo
The APRC deputy spokesperson, Dodou Jah, said members of the APRC faction (No To Alliance) cannot attend the party’s December congress as members of the faction.
“Not everybody can attend the congress. People are selected from constituencies, regions, wards and sub-wards. I think each will select sex delegates and these delegates are not selected by the executive. All selected delegates’ names will be sent by their regions, constituencies, wards or sub-wards and their pictures will be sent for cards (printing).
“Anybody can attend the opening (of the congress), provided there is adequate space; but congress proper is only attended by delegates. They cannot come from ‘No to Alliance’ and attend the congress and they cannot attend the congress as ‘No To Alliance’. We don’t have ‘No To Alliance’ in our (APRC) constitution. What we have is national, regional, constituency, ward and sub-wards. And if you are not part of these structures, you cannot be part of the congress,” Dodou Jah told Paradise TV Gambia on Wednesday.
He said his party has already written to the IEC notifying it of its congress in Janjanbureh slated for 17th December 2022.
Jah said delegates would arrive for the event in the Central River Region settlement on 16th and return on 18th December, respectively.
Asked how the congress would be like as APRC is divided into two groups, the APRC deputy spokesperson insisted that there is still only one APRC, as per the country’s electoral law.
“There is no two APRC. We have a law in the country and the electoral law is very clear. IEC has made it very clear that they recognised Fabakary and his group and those are the names at IEC. What people don’t understand is, one month after every congress, every party takes names of their executive responsible for the party to IEC; and these are the people that IEC recognises. None of the people calling themselves ‘Yahya Jammeh’s APRC’ are part of the list at IEC.
“Three of them were among our executive committee, but when we realised that they are with ‘No To Alliance’ we took their positions from them, because it can be changed at IEC. That’s why I said three is no two APRC and that’s why IEC wrote to us for the congress and not them. Right now, I am representing APRC in the Inter-Party Committee, but there is nothing like ‘No To Alliance’,” he concluded.
The Alliance for Patriotic, Re-orientation and construction (APRC) would hold its most talked about elective congress next month in Janjanbureh.