Leading opposition candidate in The Gambia Ousainou Darboe says he would go to court if necessary to challenge the presidential election results but called for calm, citing the ongoing tourist season.
Ousainou Darboe, a lawyer and human rights activist, came second in the presidential election with 27.7% of the vote, far behind the 53% of the vote officially attributed to incumbent Adama Barrow in.
Barrow, whose assumption of the presidency five years ago ended more than 20 years of dictatorship, garnered more than 53 percent of the vote, according to results released by the electoral commission.
His main challenger Ousainou Darboe won 27.7 percent.
Crowds of Barrow’s supporters marched through the streets of the capital to a din of horns and danced on a vast esplanade and Saturday’s election, the first since former dictator Yahya Jammeh fled into exile, is seen as crucial for the young West African democracy.
Electoral commission chairman Alieu Momarr Njai declared Barrow the winner, announcing the final results to journalists hours after rival candidates had challenged partial results that gave him a commanding lead.
Barrow received a standing ovation when he addressed them with “a great sense of joy and humility” and called on his supporters to respect those who voted for his opponents in a “free, fair and transparent election”.
Before the full results were announced, three of Barrow’s rivals had rejected partial results that gave him an early lead.
Gambians flocked to the polling booths Saturday to choose who would lead their country — the smallest in mainland Africa — for the next five years, with turnout at 87 percent, according to official results.
Earlier Sunday, Ernest Bai Koroma, head of an election observation mission from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), appealed to all the candidates “to accept the outcome of the election in good faith.
The election was being closely watched as a test of the democratic transition in The Gambia, where Jammeh ruled for 22 years after seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1994.
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