DARBOE SAYS UDP OPEN TO COALITION TALKS

United Democratic Party leader Ousainu Darboe yesterday confirmed to The Standard that the main opposition party is open to discussing the formation of a coalition with any political party as the country gears for presidential election in thirteen months.

When asked whether that includes Talib Bensouda’s Unite Movement for Change, Mr Darboe who is on a fundraising tour in Europe with some of his party’s chieftains, told The Standard: “We are open to discussions with anybody.

We have never given our back to party alliances. We are open to it and of course, when you go for any coalition it is the discussions and the conditions that will really determine the fruition of the ambition. But we have never given our backs to any alliance and since 2001 we have been working in alliance with parties. So we never gave our backs to it and we will welcome it and we are prepared to discuss conditions with any party or group of people.”  

Surveys
Reacting to a question on a recent opinion poll that ranked him unfavourably, Mr Darboe contended: “It is true that one cannot ignore surveys but if you are referring to the CepRass survey, that was since December 2021. We are going to work very hard to ensure that those negatives are turned into positives.

“And note that [in the 2016 US presidential election] all the opinion polls were in favour of Hilary Clinton with big margins but Donald Trump ended up winning and of course between Kamala Harris and Trump in 2024, the margins were very small but Trump ended up winning with a very big margin. So while I respect the surveys, I don’t think they really provide the answers. They can give indications but they are not really the conclusion.”

Source: The Standard