Ms. Marie Sock has frowned on some political leaders for their failure to honor the invitation of the Gambian Adama Barrow to the national dialogue.
The 2021 Presidential aspirant said: “I’m disappointed that some political party leaders did not show up, instead they sent representatives. As party leaders and leaders of political movements, we need to be serious about what we tell our people. I respect the entire party leaders that made it to the national dialogue because if we talk about peace and coming together for national development we need to put sentiments aside and we need to put our personalities aside too.”
In a statement made available to The Voice, she commended that Gambian leader for the timely initiative, describing it as a vital move that he will always be remembered for as it is the first time in the history of the country under his tenure.
She urged the organizers of the national dialogue that many serious independent candidates from the last elections should be allowed to be part of the dialogue.
“some of us have more members in our movement than some political parties I saw sitting on there and I am calling on the IEC to start looking into those empty political parties because those parties some of them didn’t even have members anymore but they are there filling seats that we the independent candidate could have to fill because we have more voice in this country than those political leaders,” she pointed out.
She added that another disappointment she had was seeing only one female representing a political party at that round table during the discussion.
“If the party leader were there, there would be no female on that table and this is a call for concern because we cannot have female leaders in the political space in the Gambia and choose not to include them in the round table regardless if they independent candidates because we play a role in the politics of the Gambia,” she argued.
The former independent aspirant also the leader of the Alliance for Social Democrat asserted that there are more women than men in the country and if all the women decide not to vote or to stand by any leader then there will be no male leaders in this country.
“I will put it to the IEC to reconsider because somebody like me, the reason why I don’t have a political party is because I don’t want to fall into the same political norm that has been saturated since our independence. We have to change the game of politics, we have to change the mindset of the people in politics, and how they see politics,” she stated.
