By: Nyima Sillah
The lawmaker for Serrekunda West Madi M.KCeesay said President Adama Barrow is making efforts over the draft constitution to leave behind a legacy.
“President Barrow wants to achieve a legacy in making sure that we have a new constitution and perhaps that might have prompted the dialogue,” Ceesay opined.
According to him, the constitutional reforms meetingof NAMs on Monday and Tuesday was part of an initiative to reintroduce the crashed draft constitution. He pointed out that the change that was ushered in 2016 could not be completed because the government has reneged on the promise of ushering in a new constitution.
On the National Dialogue, NAM Ceesay opined that if the dialogue succeeds, it will have an impact by paving the way for the easy passage of the draft constitution when reintroduced to Parliament.
“Parliament is a political House with a combination of political parties. If the dialogue succeeds, then the policies will trickle down to the members. So, if it[draft constitution] comes to the assembly, it will pass,” he stated.
He, however, pointed out that if the political parties disagree during the dialogue, then the draft will crash again as it did during the fifth legislature, stressing that political parties should overlook their differences and allow the document to pass.
“Sometime in 2016 and 2019, they had a consensus around certain areas but there are areas where they could not have consensus on and that should be their priority. The presidential term limit and few other things should be looked into and without that, it will be difficult for The Gambia to have a new constitution,” NAM Ceesay pointed out.