Gambia’s Jammeh loses poll
BANJUL: Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh, who vowed to rule the tiny nation for “a billion years”, was handed a shock election defeat 22 years after seizing power in a coup.
Voting against Jammeh on Thursday was a rare show of defiance against a leader who has effectively ruled by decree and who human rights groups say routinely crushes dissent by imprisoning and torturing opponents.
Celebrations erupted in the streets of the capital Banjul, a normally sleepy seaside city whose white beaches lined with palm trees are a draw for European tourists.
Gambians shouted: “We are free. We won’t be slaves of anyone”. Some waved the Gambian flag and opposition party signs.
The electoral commission head declared businessman Adama Barrow president-elect on state television, with 45.5 percent of the vote against Jammeh’s 36.7 percent “Having received 263 515 votes out of the total votes cast in the election, I hereby declare Adama Barrow duly elected to serve as president of the republic of the Gambia,” Alieu Momar Njai said.
Barrow, a real estate developer who once worked as a security guard at retailer Argos in London, said he was expecting a phone call from Jammeh conceding defeat.
Njai from the electoral commission also said in Banjul that Jammeh would concede, which, if it happens, would be momentous for Gambia, a country huddled along the banks of the Gambia river.
Earlier this week Jammeh said that his “presidency and power are in the hands of Allah and only Allah can take it from me”, and on one occasion even said he would remain in office for “a billion years”.
“I never in my dreams believed he would concede. It almost feels too good to be true,” said Ramzia Diab, an opposition coalition member who fled to neighbouring Senegal after receiving death threats.
Jammeh’s supporters deny abuses and he has often criticised Western powers for meddling in African affairs. Gambians had voted amid a total blackout of the internet and all international calls, and with land borders sealed. – Reuters