Dear Pa Nderry,
Please tell Max Jarju that like many others, he is not quoting the full provisions of the 1997 constitution regarding qualifications to run for President.
What many like Max Jarju fail to quote either by ignorance or by deliberate act of misleading the Gambian people is where the constitution defines who is a public officer. ()Look at Chapter XI) Section 166 4(a))

THE PUBLIC SERVICE
(1) Subject an Act of the National Assembly, the Public Service of The Gambia shall comprise the civic service as established immediately before this Constitution comes into force and the offices declared elsewhere in this constitution to be offices in the public Service.
(2) Subject to this Constitution, acts of the National Assembly may provide for the establishment and regulation of separate public services of The Gambia (which may include common services for the staff of local government authorities or the staff of Public Enterprises). Any such Act shall include provision for-
(a) the appointment or election of a competent authority for the administration of the particular public service;
(b) the functions and membership of the service, and may provide for an appointing authority other than the Public Service Commission for the service. Any such particular public service shall form part of the public service of The Gambia.
(3) For the avoidance of doubt, it is hereby declared that an office in the public service includes the office of judge of a superior court, and of any other court that emoluments of which are payable out of any public fund of The Gambia, and the office of a principal representative of The Gambia abroad.

(4) In this Constitution, an office in the public service does not include-
(a) the offices of President, Vice President, Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the National
Assembly, Secretary of state or a member of
the National Assembly:
(b) the offices of a member of any commission
(other than a commission the members of which are hereby or by an Act of the National Assembly declared to hold an office in the Public Service), or a member of the Advisory Committee on the exercise of the prerogative of mercy or the Advisory Committee on the conferment of honours.

Based on this provision neither Kandeh nor Darboe were public officers before.
Let us stop misleading the Gambian people.

From a reader of your paper