By: Nyima Sillah
Sheikhna Faal, the press Secretary of the Gambia Action Party ( GAP ) has said the government will spend half of the D35 billion of the 2023 budget on the upcoming Mayoral and Local Government elections.
Speaking to The Voice newspaper in a virtual interview, Faal said: “This election is very key for the government because they would want to win at all costs. So, the money that has been budgeted for certain sectors would be diverted for them to sponsor those campaigns and pump in money so that they can win.”
“They want to prove to Gambians that they are still popular. So, this election is a do-or-die for them. If they lose it, it means their popularity is gone.”
He also said the upcoming election is a test for the government. Adding that, they have already lost 50% of the National Assembly seat which was a failure.
However, he alleged that during the last year’s elections, some of the money that was supposed to be used in some of the sectors were used for campaigns.
According to Faal, a chunk amount of money should be spent on Agriculture, health, education, energy, infrastructure, and others to avoid the issue of last year.
He explained that the D35 billion as a budget is no issue. Adding that the issue is on what chunk amount of money is spent. “Are we going to see the president’s office allocate more budget than the health, education, and agriculture combined as happened before, or are we going to see a shift of priorities?” he asked.
More so, Faal went on to say the national assembly is key in making the right decision on the budget. “This has nothing to do with partisan issues. It should be a collective approach to do the right thing in this budget because that’s why they were elected to office
“They cannot allow other important sectors to be neglected while the President’s office, which is not as important as the other sectors, has been injected with taxpayers’ money for no good.”