Like Buhari and Jonathan poll: Adama Barrow Defeated Yahyah Janneh in Gambia's Presidential Poll
The Gambia's authoritarian president of 22 years, has suffered a surprise defeat in presidential elections.
He will be replaced by a property developer, Adama Barrow, who won more than 45% of the vote.
Mr Jammeh, who came to power in a coup in 1994, has not yet spoken since the results were announced.
Electoral commission chief Alieu Momar Njie has appealed for calm as the country entered uncharted waters.
The West African state has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1965.
Mr Barrow won 263,515 votes (45.5%) in Thursday's election,
while President Jammeh took 212,099 (36.7%), according to the electoral
commission. A third party candidate, Mama Kandeh, won 102,969 (17.8%).
"There
will be celebrations, there will be disappointment, but we all know we
are all Gambia," Mr Njie said, after announcing the results on Friday. Who is Adama Barrow?
Born in 1965 in a small village near the eastern market town of Basse, Mr Barrow moved to London in the 2000s where he reportedly used to work as a security guard at an Argos catalogue store, while studying for real estate qualifications.
He returned to The Gambia in 2006 to set up his own property company, which he still runs today.
The
51-year-old won the presidential nomination in 2016 to lead an
opposition coalition of seven parties - the largest alliance of its kind
since independence, according to the AFP news agency.
On the
electoral campaign, Mr Barrow - who has never held public office -
promised to revive the country's economy, which has forced thousands of
Gambians to make the perilous journey to Europe.
He has criticised
the lack of a two-term limit on the presidency and says he would
introduce a three-year transitional government made up from members of
the opposition coalition. Why is it such a shock? By Alastair Leithead, BBC Africa correspondent
President
Jammeh's defeat comes as a huge surprise. Despite a surge of support
for an opposition broadly united behind one candidate, most people
expected the status quo to prevail.
Hopes weren't high for a
peaceful transfer of power, with a crackdown on opposition leaders
months before the polls, the banning of international observers or
post-election demonstrations, and then the switching off of the
internet. But in a place where glass beads are used in place of ballot papers, it seems that the marbles have spoken.
The
unseating of an incumbent president is not the usual way politics goes
in this part of the world - but it's becoming popular in West Africa at
least, with Muhammadu Buhari unseating Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria just
last year.
Former businessman Adama Barrow now has his chance to
tackle the poverty and unemployment which drives so many young Gambians
to join the Mediterranean migrant trail every year. How has the current president reacted?
The president has yet to give a public statement on the result.
But Yahya Jammeh, a devout Muslim, once said he would rule for "one billion years" if "Allah willed it".
Earlier
this week, the 51-year-old said that his "presidency and power are in
the hands of Allah and only Allah can take it from me".
After
announcing the results, Mr Njie said President Jammeh would call Mr
Barrow to concede - though there has been no indication that this has
happened. "It's really unique that someone who has been ruling this country for so long has accepted defeat," he told reporters.
Mr Jammeh seized power in a bloodless coup 22 years ago and has ruled the country with an iron fist ever since.
Human rights groups have accused Mr Jammeh, who has in the past claimed he can cure Aids and infertility, of repression and abuses of the media, the opposition and gay people.
In 2014, he called homosexuals "vermin" and said the government would deal with them as it would malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
Several previous opposition leaders were imprisoned after taking part in a rare protest in April.
Mr
Barrow has previously described him a "soulless dictator" and promised
to undo some of Mr Jammeh's more controversial moves, including
reversing decisions to remove The Gambia from the Commonwealth and the
International Criminal Court (ICC). Was the election fair?
Celebrations erupted in the capital, Banjul, with Gambians shouting: "We are free. We won't be slaves of anyone."
During
the campaign, the country's mostly young population seemed to be
yearning for change, said the BBC's Umaru Fofana in the capital, Banjul.
On voting day the internet and international phone calls were banned across the country. Observers from the European Union (EU) and the West African regional bloc Ecowas did not attend the vote.
Gambian
officials opposed the presence of Western observers, but the EU said
before the vote it was staying away out of concern about the fairness of
the voting process.
The African Union did despatch a handful of observers to supervise the vote, however. Where is The Gambia?
Republic of The Gambia
Capital: Banjul
Population 1.8 million
Area 11,295 sq km (4,361 sq miles)
Languages English (official), Mandinka, Wolof, Fula
Major religions Islam, Christianity
Life expectancy 58 years (men), 60 years (women)
Currency dalasi
The Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, with a population of fewer than two million.
It is surrounded on three sides by Senegal and has a short Atlantic coastline popular with European tourists. Image copyrightThinkstockImage caption
The Gambia is known to many outside the country as an ideal beach holiday location
Tourism has become The Gambia's fastest growing sector of the economy, and it is known to travellers as "the smiling coast of West Africa".
Last year, President Jammeh declared the country an Islamic Republic in what he called a break from the country's colonial past.
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