Gambia’s newest Political party Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC) which shocked the political landscape in 2016, with loud and elaborate entry into the country’s political scene has been engulfed in an internal squabble which led to the abrupt expulsion of one of it’s executive members. On June 24th, GDC expelled Mr. Musa Batchilly a Senior executive member and Diaspora spoke person of the party.
In a brief letter addressed to Batchilly and copied to the Independent electoral Commission the administrative Secretary of GDC Samba Baldeh wrote “I am directed by the Central Executive of the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC) to inform you that, you are expelled from the party with immediate effect and can no longer represent the GDC at any level. On this note, you are strictly warned to refrain yourself from all GDC activities, programs and functions upon receiving this letter. With a copy of this letter, the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the press are being informed for pubic consumption” Signed by Samba Baldeh Administrative Secretary GDC. See copy of letter at the bottom.
The main reasons for the expulsions of Mr. Bactchilly was not revealed from the letter above. However, after the publication of the news of Mr. Batchilly’s expulsion, both him and the GDC party hit the airwaves to explain their version of the story. According to the GDC Administrative Secretary who spoke to a sister network MamosTV , Mr. Baldeh revealed that Batchilly’s expulsion is as a result of his activities that are seen to be against the code of conduct of the party. He went further to describe Mr. Batchilly’s actions as insubordination in “that he was constantly going against the Code and Principles of the party and he is also accused of undermining the party leader, Mama Kandeh. He further revealed that Batchilly said he is not ready to accept being led by Mama Kandeh anymore and he even called on Kandeh to resign from being the chairman and leader of the GDC”.
“As a result of this, we tried our best to come to terms with Mr. Batchilly but he refused to abide by the Code of Ethics and we are left with no other option than to expel him,” said Mr. Baldeh to Mamos TV. According to the same sister network the expelled executive member, Musa Batchilly in his reaction through Mamos Tv, said the decision of the GDC to expel him from the party is so ‘childish’. Mr. Batchilly said he is not surprised because to him, he ceased to be a member long ago. “I left the GDC since the 13th of June when I had a bitter argument with Kandeh about how he runs the GDC while he (Kandeh) was in Guinea Conakry for a mission,” he revealed.
Mr. Batchilly’s expulsion created chaos and scramble within supporters of the GDC party and his own supporters both sides hitting social media to try to discredit the other side. Opponents of the party also appears to have got red meat by jumping on the story to further discredit the GDC and its leader. Both Mr. Batchilly and the Administrative secretary of the GDC are expected to make rounds on the networks to continue to narrate their own version of the story.
One thing is certain, internal fights such as the expulsion of an executive party member always leaves a bitter taste and stains on a political party. There is inherent risk that both sides might be tempted to reveal sacred or confidential information for one side and the other, leading to character assassination of not only the expelled member but the leader of the party as well. If such situations are not handled with maturity they are likely to distract and get out a laundry list of party confidential operations. This is why in more mature organizations, such situation is often handled with caution and a mutual agreement is reached to preserve propriety materials of the organization. For now, it appears that the judge and the jury will be left to the general public to make a conclusive decision and of course the jury on the political impact on the party and the expelled executive will still be out. Ultimately, both parties will be better served if they are restrained and understand it was country more than individual and party interest that brought them together.
Story filed by Demba Baldeh Associate editor