Darboe is a human rights lawyer, and worked for the Attorney General’s Chambers before entering private practice. He has served as advisor to several companies and government agencies, and was also for a time the vice president of the Gambia Bar Association. He founded the United Democratic Party (UDP) in 1996 and stood in presidential elections the same year, 2001, 2006, and 2021 presidential elections. He was imprisoned in 2016, but released after Barrow’s victory.
Darboe was born in 1948, in Dobbo, the son of Numukunda Darboe, who served as a member of parliament for Lower Falluda West, and as communications secretary for Pierre Sarr N’Jie’s United Party. Darboe attended Bansang Primary School and then proceeded to Banjul, where he studied at Saint Augustine High School and Gambia High School. Darboe was the recipient of a Commonwealth scholarship to study law at the University of Lagos in Nigeria. He also later studied a master’s degree in law from the University of Ottawa, Canada.He is the first Gambian lawyer from the Mandinka ethnic

Major opposition politician ●
1994 in the Gambia saw a military coup, propelling Yahya Jammeh into the role of head of state. In August 1996, Darboe founded the United Democratic Party based on “democracy, constitutionalism and the rule of law”, and became its first leader. He first ran for president in the 1996 presidential election, where he came second to Jammeh, winning 35.84% of the vote to Jammeh’s 55.77%. However, the election was widely criticised by observers for its flaws.

In June 2000, while on the campaign trail for the 2001 election, his convoy was ambushed by supporters of the Jammeh regime. One attacker, Alieu Njie, was killed in the process. Darboe and 20 others were arrested and held in Basse police station before being transferred to the high court in Banjul and being granted bail.

He ran again in the 2001 election, representing a three-way coalition of the UDP, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), and the Gambian People’s Party (GPP). He again finished second behind Jammeh, winning 32.59% of the vote.In 2005, the UDP joined with four other opposition parties to form the National Alliance for Democracy and Development (NADD), in preparation for elections in late 2006 and early 2007. The alliance, however, disintegrated after the UDP and the National Reconciliation Party (NRP) withdrew in early 2006.

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