The two frontrunners in The Gambia’s landmark presidential election have urged their compatriots to exercise their voting rights in peace and tranquility and eschew acts that might undermine the credibility of the polls.
It is the first presidential election since Yahya Jammeh lost the presidency to current incumbent Adama Barrow in December 2016.
There are fears of a repeat of the post-electoral quagmire which followed Jammeh’s refusal to concede to Barrow.
It plunged the country into a political crisis, prompting the intervention of West African regional leaders who eventually forced him into exile in Equatorial Guinea.
Since then The Gambia has struggled to shake off this post-electoral hangover which set the stage for a troubled transition to fully fledged democracy after 22 years of strongman rule.
Some 3000 police officers have been deployed in the length and breath of the country to beef up security.
Speaking shortly after casting their vote in the capital Banjul and the coastal town of Bakau respectively, President Adama Barrow and Ousainou Darboe issued conciliatory words calling for an orderly, peaceful and transparent election.
Contesting under the banner of the National People’s Party, President Barrow flanked by his wives cast his ballot, a marble cast in drum, carrying his image and his National People Party colours at around 11am.
Barrow said he was “sure of a landslide victory” at the polls which officially began at 8am on Saturday.
The head of the Independent Electoral Commission, Alieu Momar Njie received him at a polling station inside the McCarthy Square, a stone throw from state house.
With a serious expression on his face, Barrow shot warnings at the electoral commission chief to be a neutral arbiter in the election, the most hotly contested in the recent electoral history of mainland Africa’s smallest country.
Prior to the poll, Njie’s IEC had come under strong criticism from the public who questioned its impartiality and ability to conduct a transparent and credible election that’s acceptable to all irrespective of who emerges as the eventual winner.
Meanwhile appearing on crutches as a clutch of journalists swarmed around him, a clean-shaven Darboe of the United Democratic Party appeared in positive spirits as he walked labouriously to cast his vote at a polling booth on the outskirts of Bakau, 11km west of Banjul.
Mr. Darboe said he was confident of victory but called on all Gambians irrespective of their political persuasions to vote with maturity and good spirit.
The 73-year-old lawyer who is taking a shot at Gambia’s highest office for a fifth time since his first try in 1996, said the five pretenders to the presidency should concede to whoever wins the race to state house.
He spoke about a UDP government tackling corruption head-on, addressing the country’s mounting economic challenges and ending insecurity should he be elected as the country’s leader for the next five years.
Tuku Jallow, a senior member of Darboe’s UDP told the African Press Agency that only a new government led by the diminutive lawyer could assuage the plight of ordinary Gambians suffering under the crushing weight of poverty, and unemployment.
The other four contenders Mamma Kandeh of the Gambian Democratic Congress, Halifa Sallah of the People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism, Abdoulie Jammeh of the National Unity Party and independent candidate Essa Mbye Faal have also cast their vote by midday.
Saturday’s vote follows three weeks of intensive campaigning across the country by the candidates and their vote-seeking caravans.
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 observers including from the Commonwealth and the European Union are in the country to witness the conduct of the poll which closes at 5pm.
WN/as/APA