Mr. Halifa Sallah on Saturday accepted his party’s presidential nomination at a convention at Kairaba Beach Hotel. Mr. Sallah had earlier won the opposition People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism nomination.
In his acceptance speech, the sociologist politician read the following pledge:
I, Halifa Sallah, hereby declare before the whole people that if elected President I will serve only one term which according to section 63 of the Constitution is for period of five years.
I, Halifa Sallah, hereby declare before the whole people that if elected President, our Cabinet will introduce a Bill to secure the following constitutional amendments:
The establishment of a two four year term limit to the presidency of The Gambia;
The establishment of one-third gender parity in the composition of Cabinet and all other representative institutions through proportional representation. Special interest groups like the physically challenged shall be given special consideration;
The restoration of the absolute majority so that no person shall be elected as President on the first ballot unless the votes cast in his or her favour at the election are more than fifty percent of the total number of votes validly cast at that election;
The abrogation of the upper age limit under section 62 of the Constitution which deters competent people from exercising their right to be elected as enshrined under section 26 of the Constitution which is a fundamental political right;
The safeguarding of the separation of powers by giving parliamentarians and judges immunities from removal from office by the executive. Provisions shall be made so that parliamentarians who are dismissed from their parties shall automatically become independent members of parliament. Judges would be appointed by a service commission and removed only through impeachment after judicial and parliamentary inquiry.
I, Halifa Sallah, hereby declare before the whole people that if elected President, I will do away with all the monarchical privileges of the presidency through constitutional, legal, administrative and cultural reforms.
I, Halifa Sallah, hereby declare before the whole people that if elected President, I will not hold any other office of profit or emolument, whether public or private, occupy other position carrying the right to remuneration for the rendering of services, or directly or indirectly carry on any trade, business or other undertakings.
Ends
All the best Halifa Sallah with your ambitions.
I would add to scrap all the draconian media Laws and make sure the voting franchise extended to Diaspora Gambians is implemented.
Congratulations again, Hon.Sallah…Wish you good luck and all the best in your genuine desire and untiring selfless efforts, to bring real and meaningful changes to the lives of ordinary Gambians and Africans…
PDOIS advocated for disfranchised diaspora dissidents to organise themselves and claim franchise but it felt on deaf ears.
That’s only because it’s inachieveable in that way
This guy never gets it. He has a slim change of winning the presidential election in December but he is still in total denial.
Did you hear him say, “Come 2016, I will win the election…” ? Do you understand the phrase, “If elected president…” ? All his party has done is to present him before the electorate…It is up to the electorate to vote him president or not…
By the way, tell Max that elections are not beauty contests, where 2nd, 3rd, etc, most popular contestants also get consolation prizes.
In The Gambia, it’s winner takes all, so whether you are 2nd most popular or the least popular is absolutely pointless…You have both lost the contest…Period..
Bax, why did he pledged to serve one term if he was not going to win the election. Bax, please stop playing with our intelligence. Halifa will not serve even one term if he don’t listen to the Gambian voters. Their demand is very clear work with the other opposition parties and free the country from one man dictatorship or we will never support your candidature ever. You can continue pledge whatever you want, we are not interested.
Janjangbureh, both your party and your candidate equally have the same zero chance of winning too. Your advocated strategy of a UDP led coalition had not bored any fruit since 1996.
You may want to remember that in 1996, you were with PPP and NCP. In 2001, you were with PPP, 2006, with PPP, NRP and GPDP, in 2011 with PPP and GMC.
Why had you never won? In fact you had not only been losing but equally declining in majority from 36% in 1996 to just 17% in 2011. Above all, instead of acknowledging the contributions of your partners in your coalitions, you arrogantly claim that they are all UDP votes. This is called political dishonesty Janjangbureh.
Were all those loses due to Halifa and PDOIS not joining you? If so, then PDOIS is a significant player you must learn to work with.
Gambia, who have the better chance of winning if not voter fraud against the UDP. They can win hands down. The biggest threat to APRC is not PDOIS but the United Democratic Party.
Quote….” I, Halifa Sallah, hereby declare before the whole people that if elected President, I will do away with all the monarchical privileges of the presidency through constitutional, legal, administrative and cultural reforms.”
Comment….We don’t know exactly how much is lost to the tax payer, through various privileges that the presidents (then & now) and their so called 1st families enjoyed, but it must be quite a substantial amount of money…
Think about the fleet of expensive vehicles at the disposal of the president and his “1st family”; the cost of maintaining their palacial residence (state house); the numerous flight tickets and per diem allowances, etc,.year after year, after year…That must be in the trillions of Dalasis of poor tax payers’ monies…
Only PDOIS has pledged to end this BS and put that money to better and more productive use..What about the others..? Do they want to inherit and enjoy the ssme privileges, like Jawara and Jammeh…
Jawara inherited the colonial governor’s residence and continued the tradition; Jammeh inherited Jawara’s residence and continued the tradition…No changes there except in personalities….We know that will change with a PDOIS Government but no one else has said anything about that. ….
Bax, you might as well be the spoken person of PDOIS. Even though you have been saying the opposite.
“This guy never gets it. He has a slim change of winning the presidential election in December but he is still in total denial.”
Janjanbury, don’t be too sure that Halifa cannot win the presidential election in December. This is the second time Halifa is vying for the presidency. The first time when NADD failed and he was left with the responsibility to see to it that NADD did not die ignobly. This second time would be under a PDOIS ticket.
We support a coalition of the opposition political parties. And we are also looking forward to the opposition parties forming a coalition and selecting one presidential candidate.
Our position is clear and is on the table. So no one should accuse us of not playing our part if others should insist on their way ONLY.. It is either what they propose or they are not part of the whole effort.
People are in for a lot of surprises. I heard an online radio commentator bemusing the fact that PDOIS now has very large crowds in their meetings and in their convention. And the support PDOIS seem to having at this time.
This trend will continue to the presidential election. The party has evolved and people are beginning to see the building of an active grassroots participation and the building of the party.
Kamalo, unless the spirits or Ginas are allow to vote in The Gambian elections. Keep on dreaming my brother. No chance at all.
Bax, give us a break. How long will it take for Halifa and his disciples to get the message. Gambian people have sung it, danced it and shown it by not voted for your party. Something is missing here.
Gambian people have sang and danced many songs…You only chose to see one song and close your eyes to the rest…and that’s called partial blindness.
Guys listening to sidia taking on the lairs and the hypocrites, I will have to say “well down Sidia jatta”. I was sincerely happy about the way he handled this wuluyaa radio people.
Tell me.the source where I can.listen to it..I’m interested…
Kamalo,Halifa has won all the online polls this year that I am aware of and that is no difference at home either. The PDOIS is building the momentum all over the country. With these clear and achievable pledges, he could definitely win the election and carry out the reforms in 5 years to the delight of all Gambians. Why can’t our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora just join the rest of the Gambians to make this a reality while the Janjangburehs preoccupy their brain with past elections when PDOIS was only a baby trying to crawl?
Gambia that is true. I saw the online polls at Freedom and the Bantaba. People have a lot of faith in Halifa’s candidacy. He only needs an overwhelming support. He could also be a comprpmised candidate.
Yero, you said that Halifa won all the online elections. You are a very funny guy. Do you know that. So online elections is what will determine who can win The Gambia elections. Most of those people are not even registered to vote in The Gambia or have no voters card. If that is the case, let him win the Serrekunda Central parliamentary elections first. Halifa have no chance and he knows it more than anyone else.
Janjangbureh, please read what I wrote above. I said ” Halifa has won all the online polls this year that I am aware of and that is no different at home either”. If you doubt his popularity, let us just go through a Primary of whatever form, it will become clear. Primaries are a better guage as to who is popular at each given time. You think pretending in the online and telling lies of all sorts will take you anywhere. Halifa has won the Serekunda seat when APRC and PDOIS put up candidates in the 2002 parliamentary elections. UDP did everything to stop its supporters from voting. It became clear to them that people are independent citizens who decide on their own. How could you help someone to win if you spend all your time telling voters to boycott polls? You are now pretending to those who have short memory that Halifa won the seat because of the help UDP gave to him. What a fabrication!
Why did he lost the seat miserably? Let him try again. People are not stupid Yero.