Culled From The POINT Newspaper PDOIS For Tactical Alliance In Next Election - Halifa Sallah Mr. Halifa Sallah, one of PDOIS strong men, has disclosed that his party recognised the possibility of tactical allianc with other Opposition parties during the first round of the coming Presidential election. This, he said, was part of resolutions made during their recently concluded congres in Wuli. Mr. Sallah was speaking in an interview with this reporter on Tuesday at the PDOIS Bureau in Churchill's Town. On the issue of coalition, he said their Congress saw it as a democratic instrument that do come about during the second round of voting when no candidate gets a landslide victory in the first round. "The Congress resolved that PDOIS presidential candidate will be willing to agree on a governance agenda where the presidency will be assumed just for a year with the mandate to remove from the constitution all retrogressive provisions and re-enact progressive provisions," he noted. Adding that once that is done, people will be called for another presidential election to allow political parties present their programmes to the electorate. Mr. Sallah went on to describe the congress as a decisive one that enabled their party to review its policies, strategies and tactics. Among other major resolutions reached, he said, were: that there should be no tolerance for any form of sectionalism based on language, religion or any other groupings. Similarly, he continued, they would not entertain any sort of personality cult among their ranks. But, rather, he stated truth would be their symbolic leader while their members would be party workers of different categories. The PDOIS, he noted, also looked at the governance programme of the country and realised that the APRC Government had abrogated all its commitment to democratic governance and was bent on amending the Constitution to disempower the people. Such amendments, he pointed out, were aimed at promulgating indemnity and other retrogressive acts against the interest of the majority of the people. He said they resolved to campaign for a "No Vote" against the amendments any time it is put to Gambians in a referendum. "We resolved to open up to a tactical alliance on the basis of a sound governance agenda which will prevent any new leader from presiding over the ignorance subjugation and poverty of the Gambian people," Mr. Sallah emphasised. On the economy, he noted, that a PDOIS Government would pursue policies that would bring self-sufficiency in food. Presently, he said 42% of the country's imports go on food, amounting to over D1000m. He cited the Bangulinding Women Garden which, he said, would be extended to all parts of the country. The Congress, he added also recognised that 57% of the labour force of the country depend on agriculture. As such, he stressed, a PDOIS Government would give top priority to the sector. He said they also studied the issues affecting Youths such as unemployment and factors hinder the advancement and empowerment of women. He called on the youths to be aware so that they would not be used as tools by any selfish politician. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------