Former Coalition-2026 secretary Ebrima S. Bah faced some of his toughest questions during an appearance on AG Radio’s Thursday Viewpoint programme, where he was challenged over the United Democratic Party’s claim to be The Gambia’s largest opposition party as well as his own previous association with President Adama Barrow’s National People’s Party.
Bah recently resigned from both Coalition-2026 and the Coalition Mediation Committee (CMC) after months of difficult negotiations among opposition parties.
During the interview, AG Radio host Salieu Njie questioned whether supporters of a candidate-led coalition were failing to recognise the electoral strength of the UDP.
Some UDP members have argued that the party’s performance in previous national elections makes it unreasonable for smaller opposition parties to have the same influence in deciding who should lead a broad opposition coalition.
Bah initially questioned the basis for describing any party as the country’s largest opposition organisation.
“Whoever wants to prove that UDP is the largest opposition party must first establish the yardstick to measure what a large party is,” he said.
Njie pointed to the 2021 presidential election, in which UDP leader Ousainu Darboe finished second to President Barrow.
Darboe received more than 238,000 votes in that election, making the UDP by far the strongest performing opposition party in the presidential contest.
When confronted with electoral performance as the measurement, Bah conceded the point.
If election results are used as the yardstick, he acknowledged, then the UDP can legitimately regard itself as the country’s largest opposition party.
But the argument goes to the heart of the Coalition-2026 dispute.
Should the largest opposition party automatically lead a coalition because it commands the greatest demonstrated electoral support?
Or should all participating parties be treated equally and collectively choose a candidate who may come from outside the biggest party?
There are democratic arguments on both sides.
Recognising electoral strength reflects the actual number of citizens who voted for a political organisation. But coalitions are voluntary arrangements, and smaller parties may be reluctant to participate if joining merely means endorsing the candidate already preferred by the dominant opposition party.
The CMC was created precisely to mediate that difficult balance.
However, Bah himself came under scrutiny over another issue: political neutrality.
Asked whether he belonged to a political party, Bah initially said he was not currently a member of any party, while referring to his past association with PDOIS before 2016.
Later during the interview, he acknowledged that he had also been a member of the NPP during its early formation.
Njie challenged him over the apparent contradiction, particularly because Bah had served as secretary of a mediation committee that repeatedly presented itself as politically neutral.
Bah subsequently acknowledged that his initial response had not been truthful and apologised.
The admission does not, by itself, establish that Bah used his position in the CMC to advance the interests of the NPP. No evidence demonstrating such conduct was presented during the programme.
However, it raises a legitimate question about transparency.
Political mediators do not necessarily have to be people who have never belonged to political parties. In a relatively small political environment such as The Gambia, many civil society figures and public commentators have previously been politically active.
But where neutrality is central to a mediation body’s credibility, previous political affiliations should ideally be disclosed clearly.
Bah was also questioned about GDC leader Mama Kandeh’s withdrawal from the opposition talks and subsequent alliance with President Barrow’s NPP.
According to Bah, the CMC had no prior knowledge that Kandeh was negotiating with the governing party.
He said the committee had previously received assurances from GDC officials that Kandeh would not join President Barrow.
“We had no prior warning that Kandeh was secretly having meetings with the National People’s Party,” Bah said.
Kandeh’s eventual decision to join the NPP-led alliance demonstrates the wider difficulty confronting Coalition-2026.
A mediation committee can organise negotiations and propose compromises, but it cannot prevent political parties from pursuing separate bilateral agreements when their leaders believe those arrangements better serve their interests.
Asked what comes next following his resignation, Bah said he intends to continue consulting opposition parties before deciding which alliance he will support.
“Before the presidential elections later this year, I will make my own decision as to which alliance is the best to unseat President Adama Barrow, then I will support that alliance,” he said.
His answer means Bah may have left the mediation process, but he has not withdrawn from the political debate surrounding the December election.
For Gambians, however, the more important issue is whether the controversies surrounding Coalition-2026 — questions of party size, neutrality, leadership and competing political interests — will eventually produce a stronger opposition arrangement or deepen the fragmentation already visible within the country’s political landscape.
