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Gambian military takes over offices of electoral commission Gambian military takes over offices of electoral commission Gambian military takes over offices of electoral commission
(35 minutes later)
The Gambia’s security forces have entered the building of the independent electoral commission, instructed its chairman to leave and barred other employees from entering, the chairman, Alieu Momarr Njai, has said. The president of The Gambia’s electoral commission has been thrown out of his office by armed soldiers as a delegation of African leaders arrived in the country to try to persuade its autocratic ruler to step down following his defeat at the polls.
“The military came to my office and said I am not to touch anything and told me to leave,” he told Reuters. “I am worried for my safety.“ “I got there by quarter to 8 and when I was going up to my office, one of the cleaners told me they were not allowed in,” Alieu Njie told the Guardian. “I went to my office and a military man came and said I was not allowed to touch anything, so I took my briefcase, got into my car and went home.
West African heads of state began arriving in the country on Tuesday to try to convince the president, Yahya Jammeh, to relinquish power after losing this month’s presidential election. “Let’s just hope and pray that now these heads of state are here President Jammeh will decide to step down. The only legal way is for him to step down.”
Jammeh, an autocratic leader who has spent 22 years in power in the west African nation and who has previously said he would rule for “a billion years if Allah willed it”, surprised many when he initially accepted defeat in a televised call to the president-elect, Adama Barrow, on 2 December. The most important delegation ever to descend on The Gambia, the presidents of Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana flew in to meet Yahya Jammeh, who has ruled an increasingly isolated nation for 22 years and last week vowed to stay on despite losing the presidential election.
However, a week later he declared that the vote was “fraudulent and unacceptable” and vowed to take the matter to the country’s supreme court. Asked if Jammeh had been receptive after their hour-long closed-doors meeting, the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, said, “Very much so”, but the Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, refused to comment.
On Monday, Barrow demanded that Jammeh step down. Sirleaf was representing the regional west African organisation the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), whose chairman said on Monday that if persuasion did not work, it would consider sending in the military.
“We want him to step down immediately so that we can move forward,” Barrow told the Guardian. “He lost the election, called me, swore to the Qur’an and said: ‘I am a Muslim, I have faith, I lost the election. I have accepted it in good faith and our electoral system is the best in the world. No one can rig it.’ We want him to step down because he has put himself in a very funny position, in a tight corner.” “We have to use persuasion to get Mr Jammeh to respect the principles,” Marcel de Souza told RFI. “After that, we will see about putting on pressure via the UN security council, the AU [African Union] and Ecowas in order to avoid conflict.
The outpouring of joy at Barrow’s victory and Jammeh’s initial acceptance of it came to a halt when Jammeh said he would “not tolerate any demonstrations” and warned that there would be “serious consequences” for anyone who went against him. “And if none of that works we will consider more draconian options. We have done it in the past. We currently have troops in Guinea-Bissau. We have had troops in Mali. And therefore it is a conceivable solution.”
Gambians who had taken to the streets, talking openly of the deaths and disappearances they had experienced under Jammeh, stayed at home on Sunday and Monday, wary of the armed security forces deployed on many street corners. Sirleaf did not respond to questions about a possible military intervention, saying only: “We hope that the will of the people will prevail.”
Soldiers have been digging trenches and building defence positions with sandbags on the road to Banjul, the Gambia’s capital, in the days since Jammeh rejected the result. Until now, Jammeh has refused to see dignitaries who have come to The Gambia to try to mediate between him and president-elect Adama Barrow, a former estate agent who led a coalition of eight opposition parties to defeat Jammeh, sparking celebrations in the west African country.
Reuters contributed to this report Jammeh surprised many when he initially accepted defeat in a televised call to Barrow on 2 December but after an extraordinary televised U-turn, in which he said that the election had been “fraudulent and unacceptable”, Jammeh deployed extra military to the streets.
Although the chief of defence staff of The Gambia, Ousman Badjie, said last week that he would support Barrow, he told the Guardian on Monday that Jammeh paid his salary, so he had the backing of the armed forces.
“I’m supporting the commander in chief of the Republic of The Gambia – of the Islamic Republic of The Gambia – whosoever it may be,” he said.
“My job is security, to make sure this country is peaceful and is secure, that is my primary role and that is what I’m paid for. As we speak now, I’m paid by the government of the day, that is Yahya Jammeh’s government. He’s my commander in chief as we speak now. I have only one commander in chief as we speak.”
Hamat Bah, one of the party leaders in Barrow’s coalition , said he thought Buhari had the best chance of changing Jammeh’s mind, as he was a military man.
“Remember, President Buhari is from the military. Jammeh is from the military. I think that will make a difference,” he said.