The incumbent president of The Gambia Adama Barrow has been declared winner of the country’s presidential election.
He thus retains power with results from all the districts now in across the country.
The independent electoral commission on Sunday evening declared President Barrow winner, defeating his main challenger Ousainou Darboe.
Mr. Barrow had won over 53% of votes but three opposition candidates have rejected the partial results, citing an unusual delay in tallying the votes.
Veteran politician Ousainou Darboe, and two other candidates, Mama Kandeh and Essa Mbye Faal said on Sunday that they would not accept the results.
Barrow’s closest rival-a lawyer, Ousainou Darboe obtained 28% of the total votes.
In a statement they expressed their concern “concern that there had been an inordinate delay in the announcement of results.”
“A number of issues have been raised by our party agents and representatives at the polling stations,” their statement said.
Almost one million registered voters took part in Saturday’s election, the first since the exit of ex-leader Yahya Jammeh.
President Barrow told his supporters during a victory speech in the capital Banjul, that there ought to be a unity between the country’s political factions.
“I call on all Gambians, irrespective of your political divide, to put aside our political and other differences and come together as one people to work towards the development of our country,” he said.
Adama Barrow came to power when he defeated Jammeh in 2016 as an opposition leader and decided to seek re-election despite promising not to do so.
Call for unity
President Barrow became unpopular among some section of the Gambia population after reneging on this initial promise to only serve as a transitional leader for three years.
But he can now contest for the presidency as many times as he desires after a bill to limit presidential terms to two failed to pass last year.
President Barrow was a former security guard in London and has struggled to pull Gambia out of economic difficulties, a situation worsened by COVID-19.
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Source: Africafeeds.com
