Gambia’s Presidential election has finally brought the 22-year old rule of Yahya Jammeh to a close as the opposition leader Adama Barrow registered victory. Jammeh had come to power in 1994 after a military coup. He had won in last 4 polls as well.
- Adama Barrow from United Democratic Party is a property developer has won more than 45% votes. The defeat of President Jammeh has come as a surprise to many people and observers. The country ever since its independence from British rule in 1965 has not seen any smooth transfer of power. Some of the notable controversial moves of Jammeh were to remove Gambia from the Commonwealth and the International Criminal Court. Adama Barrow has never held any public office has promised the voters during the campaign to revive the economy which had forced many Gambians to move to Europe. He had also expressed grave concerns on the absence of two-term limit on presidency. He was born in 1965 in a small village near Basse- a small market town in the east.
- Republic of Gambia has its capital at Banjul is the smallest country with a total population of 1.8 million approximately. Although Senegal surrounds it on three sides but it has a short Atlantic coastline which attracts many tourists. Tourism is thus the fastest growing sector of the economy. The country is known as the ‘smiling coast of West Africa”. The dominant religions are both Islam and Christianity. President Jammeh had declared the country as an Islamic Republic in 2015.