By Omar Bah
Momodou Satou Dibba, vice chairperson of the Coalition Task Force Mediation Committee (CTMC), has resigned from the opposition coalition talks, citing irreconcilable disagreement over the talks’ voting mechanism.
In a letter delivered to Prof Yero Mballow, chairperson of the Committee, Dibba, a retired United Nations senior governance and political affairs official, said he was withdrawing “with immediate effect” because the Committee and the political entities involved continue to insist on a one-entity, one-vote rule that he believes unfairly ignores party size and past performance.
“I joined the CTMC as a governance and political affairs professional to support a unified political opposition,” Dibba wrote, adding that the CTMC had advised a weighted-voting system that would recognise the relative sizes of different political entities when deciding between a party-led and a candidate-led coalition.
Instead, he went on, most political entities opted for a one-entity, one-vote mechanism that “pegged all political entities at the same level irrespective of size,” resulting in the adoption of a candidate-led coalition type.
Dibba said he and others who preferred a party-led model raised concerns but continued to participate in the talks in the expectation that the voting disagreement could be resolved.
“With current developments and state of affairs, and with one-entity, one-vote mechanism continuing to determine the direction of the talks, reconciliation is highly unlikely,” he wrote, explaining his decision to resign.
He thanked opposition political entities and his CTMC colleagues for the opportunity to participate and said he remains available to support any coalition talks that recognise party size, organisational presence, and past electoral performance.
The Coalition-2026 talks aim to unify opposition forces ahead of national elections by agreeing on coalition structure, leadership selection, and joint strategy. A party-led coalition typically gives larger parties greater influence commensurate with membership or past electoral performance, while a candidate-led model — especially under one-entity, one-vote rules — can empower smaller groups and independent candidates by equalising voting power in internal decisions.