OPPOSITION COALITION TO SELECT FLAGBEARER IN TWO MONTHS

The Taskforce Mediation Committee, the body overseeing the current opposition coalition building talks, on Saturday moved from talks to architecture, ratifying its Terms of Reference and adopting a two-month battle plan to produce one opposition candidate for the December 2026 presidential election. 

Saturday’s session, the fourth since the talks started, was hosted by APP- Sobeyaa at Sarge’s Hotel, attended by most established parties and new political movements. 

The chairman of the taskforce committee Professor Yerro Mballow said the coming sessions will produce  a binding Code of Conduct; Five- Point Common Agenda;  The Kairaba.2-0 Agreement; Charter signing, seat-sharing formula, dispute resolution tribunal, binding timeline, flagbearer selection mechanism; unified campaign structure and a joint manifesto.

“The taskforce is a neutral body mandated to design and mediate talks toward a single opposition candidate and a common agenda for December 2026,” Mballow told delegates.

“Our mandate is to partner with political leaders and movements to build a credible, rules-based coalition.” 

He added that delegates agreed on how to select a committee to resource the operations of the taskforce. 

The leader of the APP- Sobeyaa Essa Mbye Faal, speaking as host, reaffirmed his party’s commitment to a principled and united opposition process.  

Meanwhile taskforce committee chairman Mballow also announced that the 5th ‘Strategic Session’ will be held on Saturday, 16 May, at Baobab Hotel, Bijilo, to be hosted by a civic society movement, to be named by the Secretariat. 

“From today, with nine outputs on the table, the taskforce is no longer a forum. It’s a factory. 

The test now is compliance.  The Kairaba 2.0 Agreement won’t be signed with press releases. It will be signed when parties surrender individual ambition to a common mechanism,” Prof Yerro Mballow stressed.

Source: The Standard