{"id":32908,"date":"2017-03-01T08:37:50","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T08:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/gambia-scraps-age-limit-for-presidential\/"},"modified":"2017-03-01T08:37:45","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T08:37:45","slug":"gambia-scraps-age-limit-for-presidential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/gambia-scraps-age-limit-for-presidential\/","title":{"rendered":"Gambia scraps age limit for presidential candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{The Gambian parliament on Tuesday scrapped the constitutional age limit on presidential election candidates after new President Adama Barrow faced questions over his deputy&#8217;s eligibility due to her age.}<\/p>\n<p>Anyone over 65 has been barred from running for The Gambia&#8217;s highest office under a constitutional amendment that came into force in the west African country in 1997.<\/p>\n<p>The new change comes after Barrow \u2014 who took office on February 18 after 22 years of iron-fisted rule by his predecessor Yahya Jammeh \u2014 faced criticism over his decision to nominate 68-year-old Fatoumata Jallow Tambajang as his vice president.<\/p>\n<p>According to the constitution, the vice president must fulfil the qualifications required for a president &#8211; which made Tambajang overage.<\/p>\n<p>Tambajang was last week named women&#8217;s minister instead, with a mandate to oversee the vice-presidency.<\/p>\n<p>The constitutional change adopted by parliament Tuesday will have to be approved by Barrow to enter into force \u2014 a move that would allow him to name Tambajang officially to the vice-presidency again, according to observers.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers also voted to lift the retirement age of judges by five years to 75.<\/p>\n<p>Interior Minister Mai Fatty defended the changes, saying: &#8220;It is envisaged that this will facilitate and encourage qualified, competent and experienced Gambians to be appointed as judges of the superior courts or be elected to political office.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The national assembly remains dominated by Jammeh&#8217;s Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction party.<\/p>\n<p>The former strongman went into exile in Equatorial Guinea after finally ceding power to Barrow following intense international political and military pressure.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-18541 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/pix-23.jpg\" alt=\"Gambian President Adama Barrow looks at the audience from the opened roof of a car as he arrives at the Independence Stadium in Bakau for the inauguration ceremony, on February 18, 2017. Barrow has scrapped the constitutional age limit on presidential election candidates. \" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Source:AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{The Gambian parliament on Tuesday scrapped the constitutional age limit on presidential election candidates after new President Adama Barrow faced questions over his deputy&#8217;s eligibility due to her age.} Anyone over 65 has been barred from running for The Gambia&#8217;s highest office under a constitutional amendment that came into force in the west African country [&hellip;]<\/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":[228],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-afp"],"bylines":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","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":71}],"contributors":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. 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