Thousands of Gambians on Sunday staged a peaceful protest in support of President Adama Barrow’s decision to complete the remainder of his mandate in accordance with the constitution.
The Gambia for Five Years and Peace Building, a local civil society group attracted tens of thousands of Gambians from across the country’s seven administrative regions for a peaceful march in what organisers say was to ensure the constitution is upheld.
The demonstrators are calling on President Barrow to complete a five-year term as guaranteed by the constitution, instead of three years as initially agreed between eight members of a coalition which he led to defeat his predecessor, Yahya Jammeh in 2016.
The protesters include presidential adviser Henry Gomez whose party is a member of the Barrow -led coalition government and Ebrima Sorry Bah, who leads The Gambia for Five Years and Peace Building movement.
The protest began at Sting Corner, an intersection linking Banjul and the rest of the country and ended within 200 metres of the Denton Bridge on the entrance to Gambia’s capital.
According to Gomez, the coalition’s three-year agreement was not signed while the constitution backs Barrow’s decision to complete his mandate before Gambians head to the polls again in 2021.
According to him there was no point calling for Barrow to step down when the country cannot afford snap elections within a short notice.
“Those who are calling for Barrow to resign after three years, why didn’t they raise the issue earlier?” he inquired, calling on other leaders on the continent as a whole to respect their national constitutions in the interest of development.
A month ago thousands of demonstrators belonging to a rival movement calling itself Three Years Jotna ( or Three Years are Up) also converged on the same highway to Banjul to demand that President Barrow honour his election pledge to relinquish power and call for fresh elections after 36 months.
The plot around the political controversies surrounding Barrow’s mandate thickened following the sacking of former Vice President, Ousainou Darboe last June.
Darboe is the leader of the United Democratic Party to which Barrow was a member before he resigned in a bid to run for the presidency in December 2016.
EJ/as/APA