Gambia's President Barrow takes slim, early lead as vote-tallies continue (updated)

ESSA Pharma

04/12/2021 08:40

(Updates results)
    By Pap Saine and Bate Felix
    BANJUL, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Gambian President Adama Barrow had
a narrow early lead after Saturday's presidential election,
according to provisional results from the first few
constituencies to be verified by the electoral commission.
    In a test of stability and democratic progress, the small
West African country is holding its first election since former
President Yahya Jammeh was voted out of office in 2016, ending
22 years of autocratic rule.
    Barrow, a 56-year-old former security guard and property
developer, ran against five rivals, including his former
political mentor, Ousainou Darboe, 73, who was seen as the main
challenger.
    Preliminary results from four of the 53 constituencies
showed Barrow in the lead with 14,599 votes vs. Darboe's 6,188,
the election commission's chairman, Alieu Momarr Njai, said on
state television in the early hours of Sunday.
    Under the simple majority system, provisional results are
expected to be announced later on Sunday with numbers from
individual constituencies released in the interim.
    Gambia uses a unique voting system - marbles dropped into
each candidate's ballot drum - to avoid spoiled ballots in a
nation with a high illiteracy rate.
    Jammeh, who was defeated by an opposition coalition that
backed current President Barrow, fled to Equatorial Guinea in
2017 after refusing to accept defeat https://reut.rs/31oknjP.
    Earlier on Saturday, Barrow cast his vote in Banjul and said
he was confident of victory.
    "I'm happy to see a large turnout from Gambian voters," he
said, accompanied by his two wives.
    Nearly 1 million people from a population of 2.5 million are
registered to vote in Gambia, mainland Africa's smallest
country.
    "I want to see a better Gambia, a far better Gambia than the
previous years," said civil servant Bubacarr Kanteh, 39, outside
a polling station.
    Other candidates https://reut.rs/3EqrXsH include Essa Mbye
Faal, who served as chief counsel of Gambia's Truth,
Reconciliation and Reparations Commission that chronicled the
abuses of Jammeh's rule, and Mama Kandeh, who came third in 2016
and is backed by Jammeh. 
    As campaigning wrapped up on Thursday, hundreds of jubilant
Barrow supporters gathered in downtown Banjul for a final rally,
hoping another Barrow term would secure stability as Gambia
seeks to put Jammeh's rule behind it.
    Critics, however, say Barrow has broken his promises,
pointing to how he backtracked on a pledge to serve only three
years after winning in 2016. Barrow has argued the constitution
requires him to serve out a full five-year term.

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Disgraced ex-president Jammeh looms over Gambia election   
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Gambian president warns opponent to keep exiled predecessor out
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 (Reporting by Pap Saine and Bate Felix
Writing by Bate Felix and Alessandra Prentice
Editing by David Clarke, Christina Fincher and Jonathan Oatis)
 ((bate.felix@thomsonreuters.com; +33 1 49 49 55 70   Twitter:
@BateFelix;))