International News

BANJUL, Gambia, Oct 15 (APP/AFP): The Gambia’s opposition parties announced Friday they would unite around a single candidate for December’s presidential election, in an unusual show of unity as President Yahya Jammeh seeks a fifth term in power. At a meeting in Banjul, the groups agreed to pick a single contender at a convention on October 30, just weeks ahead of the election slated for December 1. The signatories of the memorandum said they were “putting our differences aside, in pursuance of the supreme national interest”, with the aim of ousting Jammeh from power. They included the United Democratic Party (UDP) — the country’s principal opposition movement — along with several smaller groupings and the Gambia’s first ever female presidential candidate, development expert and women’s rights campaigner Isatou Touray.