By: Alieu Ceesay
Coalition 2026 flagbearer Talib Ahmed Bensouda told supporters that no inquiry, report or political obstacle can keep him off the December presidential ballot, as the alliance staged its first major rally at the Brikama SSP Football Field.
Addressing a crowd drawn from the Unite Movement for Change and allied groups, Bensouda said he had already received the long-awaited Local Government Commission report and that it contained nothing that would bar him from the race.
“Local Government Commission, I already have my report on it, and nothing is stopping me from contesting this election in 2026. Nothing can stop my candidacy in this world,” he said.
The remarks were aimed at critics who have argued that the commission’s findings could disqualify him from public office or block his candidacy. Bensouda presented the report as closed business and used the rally to set out a reform agenda he said would distinguish Coalition 2026 from President Adama Barrow’s administration.
He pledged that a Coalition government would privatize the National Water and Electricity Company, selling NAWEC to private investors to fix chronic power and water shortages. Citizens have long accused the utility of poor service. “Coalition 2026 under the leadership of President Talib Ahmed Bensouda will sell NAWEC and allow the private sector to provide these services,” he said.
On constitutional reform, Bensouda promised a two-term limit for the presidency and changes to the Public Order Act so that police would no longer decide who may hold rallies or protests. “Police should not determine who can conduct rallies or not. Police won’t decide who is allowed to protest. We all know police are meant to provide security,” he said, while praising the Gambia Police Force as among the best in the world.
He also vowed capital punishment for murder. “Under President Talib Ahmed Bensouda, under our judicial system, if you kill someone, you will be subjected to death.” The pledge sits uneasily with earlier national debate over abolishing the death penalty, but Bensouda framed it as a deterrent.
Institutional independence formed another plank of his platform. He said the Independent Electoral Commission chair, the director of the National Audit Office and the Central Bank governor should not be appointed by the president. “Police, the National Audit Office, IEC Chairman, and the Central Bank Commissioner will all be independent of the President,” he said. Poverty reduction and an anti-corruption drive, he added, would sit at the center of Coalition priorities.
Speakers around him struck a sharper tone against the incumbent. Lawyer Assan Martin told the crowd that young people stood with Bensouda and that “enough is enough; Gambians want their country back.”
Aja Mam Fatou Nyassi criticized Barrow’s decade in office, citing insecurity affecting women, flooded roads after rains, and youth irregular migration. National Unity Party leader Lamin J. Darboe pledged a government that would operate fully under the law and place no one above the constitution.
