By Buba Gagigo
Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, the Secretary-General and Party Leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP), has sharply criticized the 2024 Draft Constitution, describing it as an affront to the Gambian people. He declared that his party would reject the draft, citing its inadequacies and failure to address key national concerns.
“I think that constitution is really a joke and is an insult to the Gambian people,” Darboe remarked during an interview with West Coast Radio. “For President Barrow and his cabinet to want to give the Gambian people that type of constitution, just the thought of it is an insult. I will give you one instance. Our fight is against corruption. All the things that we are saying is that corruption must stop in the country. Now you have a clause in that constitution that says that on your assumption of office, you must declare all your assets, very good, but then on your exit from office, you don’t have to declare assets. And it is during the period that you are in office that you have the opportunity to do what people say you shouldn’t do. I think that’s an insult to the Gambian people just to think of that.”
Darboe further rejected suggestions to allow the draft to pass, with amendments to be made at the committee stage.
“I don’t accept this notion of okay, let it go, and then you can work it at the at the Committee stage and so forth. Bring the 2020, and walk it at the committee stages. Do your own negotiation on that at the Committee stage. That is the constitution that the Gambian People say they want. So you don’t go there and sit in cabinet and thinking ways of self-perpetuation, and they want Gambians to accept that. I have said it, and I’m saying it without apology, that we are going to vote against the 2024 Barrow draft. I’ve said it in public. I have said it to Goodwill Ambassadors,” Darboe said.
Highlighting the UDP’s long-standing commitment to constitutional reform, Darboe recalled the sacrifices made by his party since 1996, including imprisonment, exile, and even loss of life, in pursuit of electoral reforms and a constitution befitting the Gambian people.
“It’s not any constitution that we want. It is a constitution that is befitting the Gambian people, and the 2020 draft is the one that is acceptable to all Gambians. So if Barrow and his people think that they want to have something, let them bring the 2020 draft constitution. Barrow says whatever the UDP asked the government to do, they will not do it. Because we are firmly saying that if they bring another constitution apart from the 2020 draft we will reject it, that’s why they say let us bring it (the 2024) so that they can reject it. And they think that by doing so they can make us blameable, culpable. No, we are on solid ground to define our position. And we say this without an apology to anybody,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Hon. Dawda A. Jallow, officially tabled the highly anticipated Draft Constitution of The Gambia Promulgation Bill 2024 before the National Assembly last Monday.
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