Adama Barrow declared presidential winner in Gambia elections

Alieu Momar Njie, chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission of the Gambia, declared on Sunday that Adama Barrow, the leader of the National People's Party, is the winner of the presidential election held on Saturday.

Barrow received 53 percent of Saturday's vote, with nearest rival and lawyer Ousainou Darboe garnering 28 percent. Darboe and other candidates earlier said they could not accept the results of the poll. However, the vote is being seen as a test for democracy in the country.

Barrow was first voted Gambian president in 2016 while leading a coalition of seven political parties and some independent candidates, defeating his predecessor Yahya Jammeh. Jammeh has been living in Equatorial Guinea in exile.

Ahead of his re-election, Barrow campaigned on the promise to improve agriculture and infrastructural development in the country. Jammeh's 22-year rule was marked by allegations of abuse, with witnesses recently telling a truth commission about state-backed execution squads and HIV/AIDS patients being forced to take bogus cures.

Addressing his supporters during a victory speech in Banjul, the capital, Barrow called for unity between the country's political factions.

"I call on all Gambians, irrespective of your political divide, to put aside our political and other differences and come together as one people to work towards the development of our country," he said.

Goodluck Jonathan, former Nigerian president and leader of a delegation of the West African Elders Forum, visited some polling stations in Banjul with members of the delegation. They included Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, former prime minister of Burkina Faso and former president of the Economic Community of West African States Commission. 

Jonathan advised Gambians to be peaceful and law-abiding as they conducted their civic responsibilities, adding the sub-region needs peace to be able to develop in a sustainable manner.

"Whenever elections are coming up in any nation in the sub-region, we visit the country, interface with key stakeholders and impress on them to keep to the laws of the land and the rules guiding elections. It is a relatively new organization and our presence in the Gambia is the first of such engagement we would be having concerning a national election," Jonathan said.

"We are here to interact with the observers, the candidates, other key stakeholders and the citizens, as well as obtain some data about the position of things and generally watch how the electoral processes are conducted and concluded. If there is no crisis at the end of the day, we will thank everybody and quietly leave," he added.

The Gambia is one of Africa's smallest countries. The West African country with a population of 2.4 million people heavily depends on tourism but it has been hit hard by coronavirus.