Gambia's
President Yahya Jammeh will challenge the results of a Dec. 1 election at the
Supreme Court, the ruling party said, raising the prospect that a shock
opposition victory that was poised to end 22 years of autocratic rule will be
overturned.
Celebrations
erupted across the tiny West African nation last week when Jammeh unexpectedly
conceded defeat after the elections commission announced the victory of
opposition candidate Adama Barrow.
However,
in a dramatic about-face that drew international condemnation, the mercurial
former coup leader on Friday decried "serious and unacceptable
abnormalities" and called for fresh polls.
In a
statement broadcast on state television late on Saturday, the Alliance for
Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) said it was preparing a
petition "against the flawed decision of the Independent Elections
Commission".
The
deadline for submitting a challenge to the court is Tuesday.
There is
no sitting Supreme Court in Gambia, though there is currently a chief justice,
who is Nigerian. In order to hear Jammeh's complaint, legal experts believe at
least four other judges must be hired.
Rights groups
say Jammeh exerts strong influence over the court.
Three
chief justices served between 2013 and 2015. The first, a Nigerian, was fired
five weeks after his appointment then arrested and jailed. His Ghanaian
successor lasted six months before his dismissal.
Ali Nawaz
Chowhan from Pakistan served for three months before abruptly leaving Gambia
after acquitting the former navy chief in a treason case. He later told a
Pakistani newspaper that he left because the decision displeased the
government.
The last
two Gambian judges left the court a year and a half ago.
"Either
you do what Jammeh wants you to, or you lose your job or even go to jail,"
said Bubacarr Drammeh, a former state prosecutor who fled into exile in the
United States earlier this year.
"NOTHING
MORE THAN A COUP D'ETAT"
"The
election results were correct, nothing will change that," elections
commission head Alieu Momarr Njai told Reuters on Sunday. "If it goes to
court, we can prove every vote cast. The results are there for everyone to
see."
Barrow,
who has pledged to serve as a transitional leader and step down after three
years, said on Saturday that Jammeh had no constitutional authority to reject
the poll results.
The
residence in the capital Banjul where Barrow was staying on Sunday was
surrounded by around 30 unarmed supporters who said they were providing
security after the police and military declined to protect him.
Banjul
was calm though armed soldiers were visible in the streets and manning
checkpoints on some roads in the city.
The head
of the Gambian army pledged allegiance to Barrow last week, however a regional
diplomatic source who said he had spoken to the president-elect told Reuters he
did not feel safe.
"He
asks that the international community ensure his security because he feels
threatened," said the source, who asked not to be named.
Barrow
declined to speak to Reuters on Sunday, but Omar Jallow, head of the People's
Progressive Party which backed Barrow in the election, said Jammeh's actions
were "nothing more than a coup d'etat."
"We
will not accept anything less than Adama Barrow being sworn in ... We will not
take this lying down," Jallow said.
Jammeh
has long had a troubled relationship with the international community due to
accusations of human rights violations including the repression of political
opposition and threats of violence and death against homosexuals.
His
U-turn on Friday drew condemnation from the United Nations, African Union, European
Union and the United States.
"The
will of the Gambian people, freely expressed in exercise of their franchise,
must be respected by all without precondition," said Liberia's President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who currently chairs the West African regional bloc
ECOWAS.
-Reuters
AEP
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