Gambia’s incumbent head of state Yahya Jammeh will contest in court the election victory handed to opposition candidate Adama Barrow, his party has said. In a shock rejection of his defeat at the polls, Jammeh cited in a speech broadcast late Friday “unacceptable errors” by election authorities. He was referring to a readjustment of the votes counted in the December 1 presidential election.
Jammeh’s declaration was “a prelude to a petition that the (ruling) APRC Party is in the process of filing before the Supreme Court of the Gambia against a fraud decision of the IEC (Independent Electoral Commission),” his party said in a statement released late on Saturday.
Jammeh had said on Friday that he had previously accepted the electoral results “believing that the Independent Electoral Commission was independent and honest and reliable”, but would now “reject the results in totality.”