Gambia’s president defeated in election after ruling for 22 years

BANJUL, Gambia — Yahya Jammeh, the president of Gambia, has been defeated in his bid for re-election, according to results made public Friday. It is a stunning turn for a nation that has lived for more than two decades under what human rights groups have described as a repressive regime.

Adama Barrow, a real estate company owner, was declared the winner a day after voters cast ballots, in an upset victory that astonished observers.

In a concession speech broadcast on state television Friday night, Mr. Jammeh, one of Africa’s most eccentric leaders, calmly accepted his loss.

“I told you, Gambians, that I will not question the outcome of the results and will accept it,” he said. “I did not wish to contest or find out why they did not vote for me. I leave that with God.”

Mr. Jammeh’s whereabouts on Friday was unknown. Some speculated he had fled the country.

People celebrated in the streets, calling it a new era for the West African nation.

“We have our country back,” shouted Modu Ceesay, a taxi driver who took his shirt off and waved it furiously over his head. “This is our country, and now we have it.”

Mr. Jammeh’s defeat is a rare turn for the crop of longtime African leaders who have amassed so much power — and often, wealth — through decades of incumbency that they sometimes manage to stay in office until death. Other socalled leaders for life have interfered with elections to cling to power. Mr. Jammeh had himself been accused of keeping power by rigging elections in the past.

And so it came as a surprise that in this tiny sliver of a country, the smallest on continental Africa, voters managed to oust a strongman who has reigned for 22 years in a government that prosecuted and jailed critics, some of whom wound up dead, and sent thousands of fearful citizens into exile.

Mr. Jammeh seized power in a coup in 1994, and he has become known for eccentric behavior that included claiming to be able to cure AIDS with herbs, prayer and a banana. He has been denounced by human rights groups for threatening to behead gay people, ordering so-called sorcerers to be hunted and killed, and arresting and prosecuting journalists and supporters of the opposition.