By Adama K. Jallow
For the first time in history of the National Assembly election in The Gambia, the ruling party lost all the parliamentary seats in Banjul capital city of the country in the just concluded parliamentary election.
What could have gone wrong with the ruling party to have lost all seats in the elections?
After a completion of five years of good governance with so much developments incurred in the capital city, particularly with the rehabilitations of the roads of Banjul. The city of Banjul could have at least sustained a seat or two for the ruling party, but unfortunately losing all the seats to independent candidates and the opposition!
It could be recalled that from the PPP’s late president Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara of the First Republic and the Second Republic led by former president Yahya Jammeh of the APRC, neither of them ever lose all seats in Banjul in parliamentary elections for decades.
The decision made by citizens of Banjul for the first time in history to defeat a ruling party in supports of oppositions and independent candidates worth thinking. However, for the first time the president’s ruling party nominates candidates in the city of Banjul as a newly formed party, they could have probably secured the hearts of the electorates in representation of the heads of state and his party in the house of parliament who would serve the interests of the electorates with a majority to ensure that the electorates’ voices are heard.
However, the newly independents and opposition candidates elected to serve the people of Banjul have to prove themselves with high sense of responsibilities and dedications to their electorates to ensure that their voices are been heard by fully representing them in the house of parliament as far as good governance is concerned.
Their objectives should go beyond the interests of their parties’ affiliations. They should lead to leave a legacy by fulfilling all campaign promises made. The electorates have done their part by securing them the parliamentary seats for tangible reasons, now they should also keep their promises.
As far as election is concern, this parliamentary victory over the ruling party’s candidates in Banjul is believed to have sent signals that the City of Banjul belongs to all of them and not just to a single party. It shows that it is a city of law abiding, democracy and freedom where all have the right to effective decision making and that they should see Banjul, and not just a single party.