Gambia polls: President Yahya Jammeh to concede defeat

Jammeh has held on to power in his small West African nation since a coup in 1994 through a combination of violence, intimidation and a divided opposition that had been unable to unify around a single candidate.

In four terms as president, Jammeh was seen as a ruthless and unpredictable autocrat, accused by human rights groups of repression and intolerance toward journalists, gay people and political opposition.

The country’s authorities also shut down the Internet and global calls and text messaging from Wednesday night until Friday morning, when the results were already known.

Thursday’s vote proceeded relatively peacefully, although the government closed the country’s borders and shut off internet access and global calls.

Nicknamed “no drama Adama” because of his cool, calm demeanour, Barrow, a member of the Fula ethnic group from rural eastern Gambia, had not sought the job of president.

Gambians voted by placing marbles into drums marked for each candidate.

It is unclear whether Jammeh, if he steps down, will insist on some kind of immunity for alleged abuses under his rule.

Jammeh’s defeat has been greeted with astonishment in The Gambia, where most people expected him to win.

He will take the country’s highest office after trouncing the current leader, Yahya Jammeh, who had been in power for more than two decades, making headlines around the world.

But in yesterday’s election Arsenal fan Barrow, who worked at Argos while studying in London in the early 2000s, won 263,515 votes, or 45 percent of the total, while Jammeh finished in second with 36 percent.

Speaking to the public on Gambian television late on Friday, Jammeh congratulated Barrow for his “clear victory”, saying: “I wish him all the best and I wish all Gambians the best”.

The president of Gambia’s Independent Electoral Commission, Alieu Momarr Mjiar, announces presidential election results in Banjul, Gambia, Dec. 2, 2016.

Outgoing Gambian president Yahya Jammeh shows his inked finger during voting in Banjul.

On Friday Barrow said that he was expecting a phone call from Jammeh conceding defeat, but there were no word if that’s happened yet.

This caused panic and frantic telephone calls, with relatives advising each other not to go outside amid fears Jammeh’s loyalists in the army would resist relinquishing power. He once said he had invented a herbal cure for AIDS that only works on Thursdays.