The United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate for Lower Saloum Constituency, Halimatou Sowe has told TAT that her constituents tasked her to uproot a rubber-stamp parliamentarian who wasted five goods years without solving the concerns of the people of Lower Saloum.
According to her, electorates in Lower Saloum face national embarrassment every time their representative takes the floor at the national assembly, alledging that the Lower Saloum MP has not been able to participate in any assembly debates due to his inability to express and articulate the problems and challenges facing his constituents.
“We are removing a rubber-stamp parliamentarian who wasted five precious years without being able to tell the assembly what he has been sent there to do. Filing a wrong parliamentarian has been a monumental error of judgment on the part of our people and I am here to change that trajectory,” according to Halimatou Sowe, UDP candidate for Lower Saloum
She added: “Numerous challenges confront the people of Lower Saloum but unfortunately, these problems could not be raised in parliament because our MP cannot express himself in English. This dire situation confronting our people is what motivated my coming and I want to assure all the people of Lower Saloum that am ready to speak on their behalf at the parliament.”
Halimatou Sowe is among eight other candidates vying for the Lower Saloum seat at the assembly, but the only female candidate said this is her chance to win a seat at the national assembly.
“I have high chances of winning in the forthcoming election as I am the only female candidate among the lot. I have no doubt, that the women and youths of Lower Saloum will vote for me because I am a mother who knows the pain of the family of Lower Saloum,” Halimatou Sowe confidently told The Alkamba Times.
She added: “I know the many issues including the lack of adequate water and electricity supply retarding the progress and development of the constituency. I know what our women are going through, what our farmers, fishermen, youth, and women are going through and even our school children and elderly and am ready to address them once elected to parliament.”
Once elected, Halimatou said her priority will be to unify the already divided people of Lower Saloum through periodic town hall meetings, outreach programs, and grassroots engagements.
The UDP aspirant for Lower Saloum further observed that while other constituencies are on the progress, the people of the constituency continue to wallow in underdevelopment, the collapse of existing institutions and facilities, lack of job opportunities, low yields in agricultural production, depletion of animal husbandry sector as well as the lack of feeder roads to the Ricefields and high cost of fertilizers for farmers.
“What I want electorates to understand is that road construction and distribution of farm inputs and money to constituents are not monies that come from the pockets of our MP or any other minister or individual Gambians. The sources of all these projects are the hard-earned taxpayer’s money that you and I contributed, they are not gifts from either President Barrow or Hon. Sainey Jawara,” Sowe added in a strong expression of her agenda for people of Lower Saloum as the 9th April NA election draws closer.
Halimatou Sowe is expected to present her credentials for nomination at the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) bureau in Janjanbureh on Wednesday and once accepted she will run alongside the incumbent NRP NAM Sainey Jawara, Mustapha Cham of PDOIS, Ebou Gaye of APP, Lamin Kanteh, Independent, Amat Secka, Independent, Biran Saine, Independent, and Malick Jassey, Independent.
