The United Democratic Party (UDP) has withdrawn from the ongoing opposition coalition talks.

The party’s representatives, Lamin Manneh and Lare Ceesay, informed fellow delegates that the UDP had been instructed by the party’s leadership to withdraw from the negotiations.

They said the coalition’s direction was no longer aligned with the UDP’s position and announced that the party was exiting the talks on the instructions of its leadership.

The coalition comprises the country’s leading opposition parties, which are seeking to field a united candidate to challenge incumbent President Adama Barrow in the 2026 presidential election.

The talks have been overshadowed by disagreements over the coalition’s leadership.

The UDP, the country’s largest opposition party, has maintained that it should lead the coalition, while several other parties argue that the leadership should be determined through a democratic process involving all coalition members.