The main opposition United Democratic Party in The Gambia has on Monday filed a lawsuit challenging the results of the presidential election of December 4th.
The UDP’s presidential candidate Ousainou Darboe claimed the election was rigged and vowed to challenge the outcome at the Supreme Court where the lawsuit was filed by the party’s lawyers.
The Gambian constitution says any aggrieved party to an election has the right to petition the courts within ten days of the declaration of the final results.
Both local and international election observers and West African regional leaders have described the election and the lead up to it as largely free, fair and transparent.
The independent electoral commission chairman Alieu Momar Njie on December 5th declared incumbent Adama Barrow of the National People’s Party re-elected for a second five-year term after polling 53 percent of the vote.
UDP’s Darboe, a former ally turned political foe of the Gambian leader collected 27 percent in second place in a presidential vote which will be remembered for its high voter turnout of about 86 percent.
It was the first election after the fall in 2016 of long-term ruler Yahya Jammeh who came to power 22 years earlier and ruled The Gambia with an iron fist.
Jammeh was defeated in the polls by Mr. Barrow who had promised to facilitate justice for rights abuse victims of his predecessor’s rule.
WN/as/APA