By Binta Jaiteh
Opposition Parliamentarians yesterday protested by walking out of the National Assembly shortly before NPP members passed the Former President Bill into law.
This development followed the presentation of the bill, which was brought to the National Assembly, by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
The opposition legislators boycotted the session over the bill tabled with a certificate of urgency.
The House speaker put a question for the bill to be considered going with a certificate of urgency, which caused a commotion. Later, it was put to a vote as to whether it could go with a certificate of urgency.
However, 30 lawmakers voted for it to be considered as a certificate of urgency while 17 voted against which happened to be the minority camp namely the United Democratic Party and PDOIS NAMs.
Speaking to journalists shortly after the walk out, HonourableAlhagie S. Darboe, the Minority Leader and the member for Brikama North, highlighted the reasons why they boycotted the bill.
Some of the reasons he highlighted include the fact that the former president will have the same salary as the sitting president, three cars and drivers, cooks, an office, and a residence. They also argued that the bill was passed urgently without proper scrutiny.
“For the former president bill, we did not want to associate ourselves with anything we feel will not be done for the best interests of the Gambians and that is why we decided not to take part because they feel we don’t have the numbers and yes, we don’t have the number, so they will use their number against us to do anything they feel like doing. We will not be a part of that.
“We will like the bill to come the normal way. We give it to the relevant committee to scrutinize and do necessary consultations report back, and we put the input of the people diligently,” he highlighted.
Meanwhile, the members of the National People’s Party (NPP), nominated members, some independent members and members of the No To Alliance remained in the chambers to consider and pass the bill.
If the bill is passed, a former president will earn the same salary as the sitting president; have three cars and drivers, cooks, an office and a residence. He will be treated the same as a sitting president.