Gambian opposition leader, Halifa Sallah, quits attempts to seek political office after he lost the 2021 presidential race.
Ahead of the December 4 presidential vote, Sallah 68, said he would retire if not elected.
“For me, that is the end in terms of representation but that’s not the end in terms of my love for the country,” he announced on Monday, December 6.
But said he will still be involved in politics by speaking out. “You will hear my voice louder, firmer and more determined to ensure that the forces of ignorance are defeated,” he said.
Sallah was the candidate of the People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) in Saturday’s presidential election, and managed 32, 435 votes (4%) in contest won by the incumbent, Adama Barrow with 53% of votes cast.
In 1986, he founded and led PDOIS – socialist party – and served as an MP under Jammeh.
He is currently the MP for Serekunda – the largest urban center in the Gambia with a population of more than 300, 000.
In 2006, he contested and managed only 6% of the votes in the presidential election as leader of a coalition of three political parties called the National Alliance for Democracy and Development (NADD).
PDOIS backed Adama Barrow in 2016 and Sallah was spokesman of the Coalition during the political crisis that erupted as a result of Jammeh refusing to step down.
The veteran politician, whose main activities under the dictatorship of Yahya Jammeh involved promoting and protecting human rights, singlehandedly exposed Jammeh’s witch-hunting exercise in 2009 by tracking the witch doctors and state agents involved in the act.
He was later arrested and detained for exposing a government-sanctioned directive of screening people accused of being witches. Charges against him were later dropped.
