Friday, December 02, 2016
Yahya Jammeh expected to concede defeat to former businessman Adama Barrow
Gambian opposition candidate Adama Barrow has won the country’s presidential election, the electoral commission said, defeating Yahya Jammeh who had been in power for more than two decades.
Electoral commission chairman Alieu Momar Njie said Mr Barrow received 263,515 votes, Mr Jammeh won 212,099 and a third candidate, Mama Kandeh, received 102,969.
Mr Njie said: “Having received 263,515 I hereby declare Adama Barrow duly elected president of the Republic of Gambia for the next five years.”
He added that Mr Jammeh was expected to accept defeat more than 22 years after he seized power in a coup, and would give a statement later.
Mr Njie said it was “very unique” that Mr Jammeh would accept defeat after controlling Gambia for so long.
There was no immediate comment from the president, who had claimed his victory was all but assured by Allah.
Since coming to power in 1994, he has won a series of elections that were denounced by critics as rigged.
He is accused by rights groups of ordering the deaths of his political opponents and his regime has also targeted journalists, and homosexuals.
The announcement came a day after eight opposition parties united behind a single candidate – former businessman Mr Barrow – to try to oust Mr Jammeh at the polls.
After voting on Thursday, Mr Jammeh had predicted “the biggest landslide in the history of the country”.
Mr Barrow said on voting day that he strongly believed Gambians were ready for change, adding: “He is not going to be re-elected – his era is finished.”