Leaders from the Economic Community of West African States or ECOWAS deployed troops to The Gambia on Thursday after Jammeh said he would not accept the results of December’s election, in which he lost to opposition leader Adama Barrow.

In a New Year’s message broadcast on Saturday, Jammeh said the “blatant and one-sided” approach of ECOWAS, “disqualified it from providing mediation services”.

He added, “What we are simply and rightfully asking for is to return to the polls and allow the Gambians to elect who they want to be their president in a free and fair election.”

After more than two decades in power, Jammeh, 51, lost a December 1 election to Barrow, a former real-estate agent.

After initially accepting the result, Jammeh later rejected it, alleging irregularities, and filed a petition to the Supreme Court which is due to be reviewed on January 10.

Barrow has insisted he will take office nine days later, as planned, with ECOWAS leaders set to attend the ceremony.

Earlier this month ECOWAS said it would stage a military intervention, led by neighbouring Senegal, if Jammeh failed to step down and set a deadline of January 19, the day of Barrow’s planned inauguration.

The UN Security Council has called on Jammeh to “fully respect” the election results and ensure Barrow’s safety.

The electoral commission said Barrow obtained 222,708 votes (43.3 percent) compared with Jammeh’s 208,487 (39.6 percent).

Jammeh has questioned the validity of the count after the electoral commission changed some results, even though it insists the outcome was not affected.

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Source: Aljazeera

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The West African country is in a constitutional deadlock after its leader Yahya Jammeh rejected results of that country’s election held earlier this month.

[contextly_sidebar id=”ol5zUklobhzuWFsLPfT9wZVtaXX6N8x3″] Dr. Ahorsu in an interview with Citi News said, “I’m against any form of military intervention in the domestic affairs of a state although those things are sanctioned. The results that we’ve seen in Libya, in Iraq and even in Ivory Coast is that you can sometimes remove a dictator but that harm that you’ve done in terms of people right and other sorts of things, it becomes harmful to the society and retrogresses progress,” Dr Ahorsu said.

He said Yayha Jammeh’s decision to contest the elections after initially conceding defeat to President-elect Adama Barrow, could be attributed to Mr Jammeh’s fear of facing trial for crimes he committed while in office.

“What is important here is the United Nations, IMF and World Bank are all calling on Jammeh to step down just as the people have spoken and he initially agreed. I think the main concern is that there must be some form of transitional arrangement. Jammeh has been a dictator and a lot of people are saying that he and his military and security commanders have carried out they must be punished and I think this is the reason why he is trying to reverse the decision of the elections,” he said.

‘Mahama joins ECOWAS team for Gambia mediation talks’

Ghana President John Mahama on Tuesday joined other West African leaders to mediate the current political situation in The Gambia.

The team included the Chair of ECOWAS, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia and Nigerian President  Muhammadu Buhari who seek to persuade President Yahya Jammeh to hand power over to Adama Barrow.

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

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Hours after President Mahama conceded defeat in Ghana’s election on December 9, news broke that President Jammeh, who has ruled Gambia for 22 years, had annulled his country’s elections and called for a re-run after earlier conceding defeat in the presidential polls.

President Mahama will be heading to Gambia on request of ECOWAS, to join the Chair of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, and two others to attempt a resolution of the political situation in Gambia.

President Jammeh went on national TV over the weekend to announce his “total rejection” of the election result thereby invalidating the election.

He questioned the validity of the count after the electoral commission changed some results, even though it insists the outcome was not affected.

The UN and the African Union have since asked President Jammeh to accept his defeat to real estate businessman, Adama Barrow, who led an opposition collation of 7 parties to win the election.

The Gambia’s election commission head also dismissed President Jammeh’s call to annul the election he was declared to have lost.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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