Gambian president Yahya Jammeh 'annuls' poll results, orders fresh elections

Gambia’s outgoing President Yahya Jammeh has rejected election results on a televised address Friday night.

BREAKING: Gambia's outgoing President Jammeh “annuls” election results over alleged election irregularities. pic.twitter.com/xFMlZsGCjE

— africanews (@africanews) December 9, 2016

He cited electoral irregularities discovered later by his team as the reason for his rejection of the result.

“I want to make it very clear, in the same way I accept the results on the basis that the IEC is independent, I will not accept the result. I reject the results,” Jammeh announced.

“I hereby annul the results and we will go back to the polls,” he added.

Jammeh said there were errors in the results from the Basse Region which were made known to his team after the declaration of results after swelling the total number of votes for his opponent Barrow.

“The errors are not from the level of the electorates but the IEC … The total number of votes was not mentioned and how it was rectified was not explained … These errors are not acceptable,” he explained.

Yahya Jammeh also explained why he lost votes by alleging that his supporters were asked to return home because the opposition had won and also, those who made it to the polls had everything intact except their identification numbers that did not tally with what was in the register.

Opposition leader Adama Barrow led with 263,515 votes, while Jammeh got 212,099 and Mamma Kandeh got 102,969 votes, the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission Alieu Momarr Njai declared on December 2.

Jammeh also condemned an alleged attack on his supporters after the declaration of results but pleaded with them not to revenge.

He also alleged that foreign troops are being invited into the country and that “so far as I am alive, no foreign powers will take over this country.”

Yahya Jammeh promoted about 40 military officers earlier on Friday creating discomfort among Gambians.

For those asking, if you can stomach it, here's Yahya Jammeh rejecting #Gambia's election results (after conceding) https://t.co/6zJZUWbKxy

— Jeffrey Smith (@Smith_JeffreyT) December 10, 2016