Sheikh Essa Foday Darboe has been elected new president of the Supreme Islamic Council.
Imams shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as Sheikh Darboe is declared winner after polling 89 votes out of the 105 delegates who voted. He replaces Muhammed Lamin Touray.
SIC has been locked in a two-day congress which churned out the head of Tadamun Islamic Institute as the new leader of the country’s Muslims. He swat aside two challenges in Sheikh Muhammed Lamin Kanteh and Sheikh Cherno Darboe by polling 89 votes to Kanteh’s 11 and Darboe sorry five votes. One hundred and five delegates voted in the election.
In a victory speech, Sheikh Essa Darboe who is also the leader of Armaana vowed to unite the country’s Muslims, speaking in both Arabic and English.
He said, in English: “It’s a big pleasure for me to run the council with my team. Thank you very much for that. We know that the candidates are one body.
“Just because we have different intention, that’s why we have three candidates based on the nominations of the people and they all think that the person that they think can run the council is the person that they nominated.
“But that doesn’t mean that we are opposition (antagonists), that doesn’t mean that we are of different views. So Alhamdoullilah we are one, we have one vision, that is to work for the sake of Allah and to unify Muslims of this country. I thank the Almighty Allah and InshaAllah we will do our able best to establish unity as the principles of Supreme Islamic Council.”
Sheikh Darboe replaces longtime president Sheikh Muhammed Lamin Touray. He too is from Gunjur like his predecessor.
