By Buba Gagigo
Hussein Thomasi, Solicitor General of The Gambia, has confirmed that the cabinet has recently finished its deliberation on the draft constitution. They are hopeful that the Draft Constitution will be reintroduced to the national assembly in December.
“It’s my pleasure to inform the Honourable members of the press that the cabinet has recently concluded its deliberation on the draft constitution. The report is now to be compiled by the Ministry of Justice with a view to gazetting the Draft Constitution. As you know, we will require a period of about three months and, subsequently, another 10 days to complete the gazetting cycle for the draft constitution. So hopefully, all indications are that we could have the Draft Constitution before the National Assembly in the last quarter of this year. So, probably by December, we will have the National Assembly deliberating on the draft constitution. You will recall that this is a promise that the government has made that it would bring back the Constitution, and it has accordingly done so, and the process is now on. So, we will have the Draft Constitution before the National Assembly,” he said during a press conference on Monday.
Gambia’s lawmakers previously rejected the draft constitution, which was intended to replace the 1997 constitution and reform the country’s governance system. The document failed to secure enough votes in the national assembly, with 31 members voting in favor and 23 members against.
Ousainou Darboe, the secretary general and leader of the country’s main opposition party, the United Democratic Party (UDP), has warned that his party will “reject and will not support any alteration in the draft constitution” that the government plans to present at the referendum.
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