Polling has closed in The Gambia’s first presidential election since the fall of Yahya Jammeh with six candidates vying for the country’s top job including incumbent Adama Barrow.
Before polls closed, the independent electoral commission issued a statement praising the “high turnout” from Gambian voters.
Due to the high stakes of the election, the turnout was expected to be high as voters turned up for the official start of voting at 8am in the entire country on Saturday.
There were reports of voters eager to cast their ballot staying overnight near polling stations in the Greater Banjul Area.
Saturday’s voting followed three weeks of intensive campaigning across the country by the candidates and their vote-seeking caravans.
Like in previous elections Gambian voters cast crystal-clear marbles inside drums, a unique way of voting in The Gambia introduced in the 1950s when the country was still a British colony.
It is one of The Gambia’s most hotly contested presidential races in living memory as President Barrow under the ticket of the National People’s Party faces his “political Godfather” lawyer Ousainou Darboe of the United Democratic Party who was vice president before being sacked in 2019.
The other contenders in the race are Mamma Kandeh of the Gambian Democratic Party, veteran politician Halifa Sallah of the People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism, former civilian aviation authority chief Abdoulie Jammeh of the National Unity Party and the only independent candidate lawyer Essa Mbye Faal.
There are fears of a repeat of the post-electoral quagmire which followed Jammeh’s refusal to concede to Barrow when he was defeated at the polls in 2016.
It plunged the country into a month-long political crisis, and prompted the intervention of West African regional forces which eventually forced Jammeh to flee into exile in Equatorial Guinea.
The smallest country on mainland Africa with a small coastline yawning into the Atlantic has struggled to shake off this post-electoral hangover which set the scene for a troubled transition to fully fledged democracy after 22 years of strongman rule.
962,157 Gambians from the country’s 1.8 million people were registered by the Independent Electoral Commission to take part in the landmark presidential poll which begins a cycle covering parliamentary and local government elections.
There are 1,554 polling stations distributed in Gambia’s 53 constituencies located in the country’s seven administrative areas.
A plethora of both local and international election observer including from the Commonwealth and the European Union are in the country to witness the conduct of the poll which closed at 5pm.
WN/as/APA