GAMBIA LEADER WON’T ACCEPT NEW PRESIDENT
Inauguration is set for this week, but will office be vacant?
Ebrima Sall hopes Thursday will be a proud day for Gambia. President-elect Adama Barrow is slated to be inaugurated as the first new leader of the tiny West African country in 22 years.
But Sall, like most Gambians, is waiting to see whether President Yahya Jammeh, 51, will actually step down, because he refuses to accept the election results. In fact, Jammeh declared a 90-day state of emergency Tuesday in his latest effort to stay in office.
The state of emergency, announced on state television, bans all residents and citizens from “any acts of disobedience” or violence and urges security forces to maintain order.
Supporters of Barrow, the president-elect, are gearing up for a fight with Jammeh, an authoritarian who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994.
“I am not sure Jammeh is ready to hand over” power, said Sall, 34, an auto mechanic. “He is still suppressing people, and the army is firmly in support of him. The coming days in Gambia are days when anything can happen.”
Neighboring countries such as Senegal are pressuring Jammeh to leave and preparing military forces to prevent violence and instability in case he doesn’t, which could trigger a civil war. Nigeria has offered him asylum if he steps down.
The African Union warned last week of “serious consequences” if Jammeh remains in office and his actions lead to the loss of lives.
The uncertainty has caused prices to soar for rice and vegeta- bles and led businesses to put off making decisions because no one can plan for the future, Sall said.
“As Gambians, we know this is the price we have to pay to get our freedom, which we have lost for the past 22 years,” he said.
After the election Dec. 1 and surprise resounding victory by Barrow, 51, Jammeh initially conceded defeat. Voters danced and sang in the streets. Gambians in exile in Senegal and elsewhere began packing their bags to go home.
About a week later, Jammeh backtracked, vowing to challenge the results in the country’s constitutional court and refusing to step down until the judges rule.
Gambia’s top court doesn’t have enough judges to hear the case after Jammeh sacked most of them last year. The country must import judges. The chief justice of the constitutional court, Nigerian-born Emmanuel Fagbenle, said last week that judges from Sierra Leone and elsewhere couldn’t come until May.
Jammeh’s party, the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction, filed an injunction to stop the inauguration.