Halifa Sallah, Secretary General of the People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism, has defended his party’s no show at last week’s by-elections in Niamina West and Kerr Jarga.

Mr Sallah told journalists at a press conference on Thursday that his party did not participate as it was focused on building its support base. 

“We can only participate when we believe that we have made sufficient ground. This is a period of building [our] support base and not a period of testing [our] weight. 

Mr Sallah said PDOIS “will continue to engage Gambians to move them away from the politics that divides them to convergences where they would engage in dialogue and debate on policies of political parties and try to convince each other on who to support in order to address their needs and aspirations.”

He added: “If we do that, we will have a country united even if there is diversity but it will be a diversity that can lead into convergences through debate and dialogue towards enhancing our mind-sets. 

“What happened in the two by-elections is precisely what happened in 2016 and that shows that we are at least building an electoral structure that can serve us.”