ALTHOUGH widely believed to have consulted fortune-tellers, President Yahya Jammeh surely foresaw little chance of an upset in the elections in Gambia on December 1st. Ahead of the polls, the man who once vowed to rule for “a billion years” had already boasted that he was Allah’s preferred candidate. Just to make sure, he had the main opposition candidate arrested in April for the crime of holding an unauthorised protest. His new rival was an estate agent called Adama Barrow (pictured), whose less-than-glamorous biography included a stint as a security guard at Argos, a discount store, on London’s Holloway Road. On polling day Mr Jammeh cut off the internet.
Yet despite government ministers poking fun at his modest past, Mr Barrow pulled off a big political upset in results announced on December 2nd, winning by 45.5% to Mr Jammeh’s 36.7%. Even more surprisingly—and to his great credit—Mr Jammeh quickly conceded defeat. By the evening, streets that many had feared could become a battleground were full of partying crowds tearing down posters of their outgoing president.
The vote ends the rule of one of the last of Africa’s old-school strongmen. Mr Jammeh had clung to power since a coup in 1994 and often seemed to combine some of African leaders’ worst traits. From his dire human-rights record to his long personal...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2h04aYT
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