Three opposition candidates have rejected the partial effects of Gambia’s election that display President Adama Barrow heading for a powerful victory, mentioning an uncommon postpone in tallying the votes.
Barrow had received approximately fifty four percentage of votes from 50 of fifty three constituencies, leaving the West African kingdom of 2.five million humans at the verge of a end result that changed into anticipated to attract a line below a hard political past.
“A simple majority is enough for each of the six candidates to win,” Ahmed Idris reported earlier from the capital Banjul.
Saturday’s vote was the first in 27 years without ex-President Yahya Jammeh, who lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea.
Jammeh, whose 22-year rule over the small nation of 2.5 million people was marked by the killing and torture of political opponents to persuade his supporters to vote for an opposition coalition in telephone speeches broadcast.
The official results indicated that he had failed to incriminate Barrow’s supporters, and representatives of all opposition parties signed the minutes, which had already been read in front of the electoral commission on Sunday.
But on Sunday Barrow’s closest rival, veteran politician Ousainou Darboe, and two other candidates, Mama Kandeh and Essa Mbye Faal, said they would not accept the results. “We are concerned that there has been too much delay in announcing the results. A number of issues were raised by our party officials and polling station representatives.
The elections are being followed closely as evidence of democratic transition in The Gambia, where Jammeh ruled for 22 years after taking power in a bloodless coup in 1994. Jammeh was forced into exile in Equatorial Guinea in January 2017 after Barrow, then an unknown relative, defeated him at the polls.
Barrow, 56, faces five challengers upon re-election. Several factors slowed the count, including The Gambia’s limited financial resources, high turnout and the country’s unusual voting system.
Illiteracy is rampant in The Gambia, so voters cast their ballot by dropping a ball into a tub marked with their candidate’s color and photo – a practice that dates back to the country’s past as a British colony.
Many of the estimated one million eligible voters in this country of more than two million are hoping for an improvement in their standard of living.
Barrow operates on a continuity ticket, highlighting completed infrastructure projects under his control, as well as increased civil liberties.
The 73-year-old is a lawyer who has represented opponents of Jammeh and has run for president on several occasions against the former strongman. He also served as foreign minister and then vice president under Barrow, before stepping down in 2019.
Jammeh lost to Barrow in the 2016 election, but was ultimately pulled out of military intervention by other African states from the west.