{"id":31122,"date":"2016-12-16T03:12:01","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T03:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/gambia-election-row-adama-barrow-to-declare\/"},"modified":"2016-12-16T03:11:59","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T03:11:59","slug":"gambia-election-row-adama-barrow-to-declare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/gambia-election-row-adama-barrow-to-declare\/","title":{"rendered":"Gambia election row: Adama Barrow to declare himself president"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The Gambia’s President-elect, Adama Barrow, has told the BBC he will declare himself president on 18 January despite incumbent Yahya Jammeh’s rejection of the election result.}<\/p>\n

He said his team was preparing for his inauguration and he urged Mr Jammeh to respect the will of the electorate.<\/p>\n

The election commission declared Mr Barrow winner of the 1 December poll.<\/p>\n

Mr Jammeh has launched court action to annul the result after initially accepting defeat.<\/p>\n

His security forces have seized control of the election commission’s headquarters in the capital, Banjul.<\/p>\n

The Gambia has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1965.<\/p>\n

Mr Jammeh first seized power in a coup in 1994, and many of his critics have been jailed or forced into exile.<\/p>\n

Mr Barrow, a property developer who was the candidate of a coalition of seven opposition parties, defeated him by four percentage points.<\/p>\n

In the interview with the BBC’s Umaru Fofana, Mr Barrow said Mr Jammeh’s move to annul the election had come as a surprise.<\/p>\n

Mr Jammeh had phoned to congratulate him soon after the election and had stated that “our system is the best” and “nobody can rig” the elections, Mr Barrow said.<\/p>\n

He ruled out a recount or re-run of the election: “We are not supporting anything as at now. Our position is very very clear. I’m president-elect. We advise the president to cooperate.”<\/p>\n

Asked about his inauguration, Mr Barrow said: “We have a team that is working on our inauguration. We are working on it; on the 18th, I’m the legal president of this country.<\/p>\n

Mr Barrow told the BBC Mr Jammeh would not be prosecuted if he stepped down because his government would focus on “truth and reconciliation”.<\/p>\n

Mr Jammeh “should feel secure” because “he is a Gambian”, Mr Barrow added.
\n“If South Africa can reconcile [after the racial system of apartheid ended in 1994], I see no reason why Gambians cannot reconcile. We are not saying prosecution; we said truth and reconciliation.”<\/p>\n

Mr Barrow added that he feared for his safety but had the “support of the whole world”.<\/p>\n

“That puts me in a strong position and I’m a very strong character. I have faith in God.”<\/p>\n

Mr Barrow rejected suggestions that foreign troops should intervene to help him take power.<\/p>\n

According to the electoral commission’s final count:<\/p>\n

Mr Barrow won 222,708 votes (43.3%)<\/p>\n

President Jammeh took 208,487 (39.6%)<\/p>\n

A third-party candidate, Mama Kandeh, won 89,768 (17.1%)<\/p>\n

Results were revised by the electoral commission on 5 December, when it emerged that the ballots for one area had been added incorrectly, swelling Mr Barrow’s vote.<\/p>\n

\"Adama<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The Gambia’s President-elect, Adama Barrow, has told the BBC he will declare himself president on 18 January despite incumbent Yahya Jammeh’s rejection of the election result.} He said his team was preparing for his inauguration and he urged Mr Jammeh to respect the will of the electorate. The election commission declared Mr Barrow winner of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31122"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31122"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}