Barrow re-elected Gambia president, opposition rejects win
Banjul, Dec 5 (EFE).- Gambian president Adama Barrow has won re-election, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) reported on Sunday, as opponents protested the win.
Barrow obtained 457,519 votes, while Ousainou Darboe, a lawyer and long-time opponent of former President Yahya Jammeh, came in second place with 238,253, followed by Mama Kandeh, a candidate backed by Jammeh, who obtained 105,902 votes in his favor.
Halifa Ababacarr Sallah obtained 32,435, while Essa Faal obtained 17,206 and Abdoulie Jammeh 8,252.
Earlier, the results were rejected by the opponents Darboe, Kandeh and Faal, who at a press conference expressed concern about the “inordinate delay” in the announcement and said that “all actions are on table.”
However, they urged all Gambians to remain calm and peaceful.
Barrow obtained the majority of the votes in 45 of the 53 electoral districts of the country, consolidating his leadership for a second term.
More than 950,000 Gambians were called to the polls across nearly 1,500 polling stations in a vote that was peaceful and orderly and to which citizens turned out in “large numbers,” the IEC said.
This presidential election is considered a test of democratic transition, being the first in 27 years that former president Yahya Jammeh (1994-2017) has not run as a candidate.
Gambians decided between the six candidates by dropping a marble, equivalent to one vote, into colored drums in a single round in which a simple majority wins.
After casting his vote Saturday, Barrow assured reporters he would not lose.
“We will never lose this election. It will be the biggest landslide victory in the history of this country. I enjoy unprecedented support in this country. You have been following my campaign and my campaign was very successful,” he declared.
Barrow will lead the Gambia for another five years despite promising that he would step down in three years after winning the 2016 election in which he beat former president Jammeh with 43.29 percent of the vote.
Jammeh ruled the small African country with an iron fist for 22 years and his regime was characterized by allegations of serious human rights abuses, such as forced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions.
In 2018, Barrow launched the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission, which investigated these abuses for three years and at the end of November presented the president with its final conclusions in which it called for the prosecution of those most responsible for crimes committed during the Jammeh regime.
Election observers were sent by the European Union, the Commonwealth, to which the Gambia belongs, and the African Union. EFE
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