By Alhagie Jobe
The United Nations Security Council has condemned Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh’s rejection of election results announced last week and called on him to respect the choice of the sovereign People of The Gambia and to transfer, without condition and undue delay, power to the President-elect Adama Barrow.
The Gambia went to the polls on December 1st in which incumbent Yahya Jammeh was defeated by opposition coalition leader Adama Barrow.
In a surprising U-turn, Jammeh resurfaces on state TV saying he no longer accepts defeat, reversing course a week after he already conceded to his rival Adama Barrow.
The UN Security Council on Saturday urged all parties to refrain from violence and particularly urged Mr Jammeh to respect the choice of the sovereign people of The Gambia.
“Security Council members called on him to respect the choice of the sovereign People of The Gambia, as he did on 2 December 2016, and to transfer, without condition and undue delay, power to the President-elect, Mr. Adama Barrow,” the UN Security Council said in a statement.
It could be recalled that last week after the results where announced, Mr Jammeh was filmed on state television calling opposition candidate Adama Barrow to concede defeat and wished him the best.
But in a surprising move late Friday, Mr Jammeh appeared on national television and said he is no more accepting the totality of the results and calls for fresh elections.
“After i accepted the results without any query, the IEC called all parties at the headquarters and told them that there was error. That is not acceptable. Let me repeat: I will not accept the results based on what has happened” he said.
He said that investigations since the Dec. 1 vote have revealed a number of voting irregularities that he called unacceptable. He said some figures in the results had been transposed and that voter turnout had been suppressed.
“Our investigations reveal that in some cases voters were told that the opposition has already won and that there was no need for them to vote and, out of anger, some of them returned home. I hereby reject the results in totality,” he ended.
