Gambiaj.com – BANJUL, The Gambia – President Adama Barrow is set to receive Gambia Movement for Progress (GMP) leader Professor Sidat Yaffa at State House on Tuesday, in what could mark another significant political realignment as the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) continues to draw figures and parties away from opposition alliances ahead of the December 5 presidential election.
Yaffa is expected at State House at 3pm on September 29, a day after his party formally announced its withdrawal from Coalition 2026, the opposition grouping led by UNITE leader and coalition flagbearer Talib Ahmed Bensouda.
The development places Yaffa alongside a growing list of opposition figures and parties whose political trajectories have shifted towards Barrow’s NPP-led Grand Coalition in the run-up to the election.
GMP’s departure is particularly significant because Yaffa was himself one of the two final contenders in Coalition 2026’s August 8 flagbearer selection. He eventually withdrew from the contest, allowing Bensouda to emerge as the coalition’s candidate after a process that had already seen several parties and movements pull out over disagreements about the selection framework and coalition governance.
Now, barely seven weeks later, Yaffa’s party has left the same coalition altogether.
From Coalition 2026 to State House
In a September 24 letter to Bensouda, GMP said its Executive Committee and wider party family had decided to withdraw after concerns raised at its Governing Council meetings were, according to the party, not adequately addressed.
Among its complaints was the handling of the Brikama SSP rally. GMP said that despite its role in the coalition’s formation and its description of itself as the “deal breaker” during the August 8 flagbearer process, it was not given the speaking opportunity it expected.
The party also complained about the conduct of some UNITE supporters, alleging that Coalition 2026 was increasingly being presented as a UNITE project and Bensouda as a UNITE flagbearer rather than the candidate of the broader coalition.
GMP further questioned the manner in which meetings were announced and alleged that some decisions were taken without the prior approval of the coalition’s Governing Council.
The party also cited the failure, in its view, to ensure that Bensouda suspended his UNITE membership and took the required oath after being endorsed as coalition flagbearer.
“With all the above outlined anomalies, GMP feels that it would not be part of a coalition that seldom gives due respect to the signed agreements,” Yaffa wrote.
His scheduled meeting with Barrow therefore comes against the backdrop of a political coalition system that is becoming increasingly fluid, with the governing NPP steadily expanding its circle of former and potential opposition partners.
Barrow’s Political Machine
The NPP’s gains have included some of the most recognizable names in the opposition camp.
In July, Gambia Democratic Congress leader Mama Kandeh signed an agreement with the NPP, bringing one of Barrow’s major political rivals into the ruling party’s electoral alliance.
Kandeh and Barrow had competed against each other in the 2016 presidential election, and the GDC had remained an important opposition force in the years that followed.
Then came Essa Faal.
The APP-Sobeyaa leader, a former lead counsel of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission and a presidential contender in 2021, formally sealed his alliance with Barrow on Sunday. Faal had previously been part of the opposition coalition process and had withdrawn from the August flagbearer contest shortly before the selection began.
Faal’s move was particularly striking because Barrow had publicly appealed to him to join the NPP days before the alliance was formalized.
The sequence has given the NPP-led coalition an expanding political footprint while simultaneously creating pressure within the opposition camp.
Yaffa’s impending State House meeting now adds another layer to that pattern.
Opposition Coalition Under Pressure
Coalition 2026 was conceived as an attempt to consolidate a broad opposition front behind a single presidential candidate. Its formation brought together several parties and movements, including GMP and UNITE, after months of efforts to build a common platform.
But the coalition’s path to December has been marked by withdrawals and internal disagreements.
Bensouda eventually emerged as flagbearer after Faal withdrew and Yaffa stepped aside. Several other parties also left the broader opposition process, citing disagreements over the selection model, governance arrangements, and decision-making procedures.
The departure of GMP therefore represents more than the loss of another coalition member. It involves a politician who was at the centre of the coalition’s own leadership contest and who is now being received by the president whose re-election the coalition was formed to challenge.
It also comes only days after Faal crossed from the opposition camp into Barrow’s alliance.
A Widening Political Divide
The emerging pattern is reshaping the December contest before campaigns have formally begun.
The NPP says its alliance now brings together nine parties, while Barrow has repeatedly invited opposition leaders to join his camp in the name of unity and national development.
For the opposition, however, the departures raise questions about whether its various coalition arrangements can retain their original breadth and organizational coherence through the final weeks before nominations and campaigning.
Bensouda has publicly denied suggestions that UNITE is considering an alliance with the NPP and has continued to campaign against Barrow’s bid for another term.
But with Kandeh already inside the NPP alliance, Faal having formally crossed over and Yaffa now heading to State House after withdrawing his party from Coalition 2026, Barrow’s political machine appears to be steadily drawing elements of the opposition’s own coalition-building project into his electoral orbit.
Whether Yaffa’s meeting with Barrow results in a formal alliance remains to be announced. But his journey from Coalition 2026 presidential contender to State House visitor captures the increasingly fluid nature of Gambian politics less than ten weeks before voters go to the polls.
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