Gambia: Ban Ki-moon hails Barrow victory, electoral body offices reopened

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday made a phone call to Gambia’s president-elect Adama Barrow, to congratulate him on his electoral victory, a move that is expected to put more pressure on Yayha Jammeh to release power.

In a readout of the phone call issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban said that the UN welcomed and fully supported the decision of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on 17 December to support the safety of the president-elect.

Ban Ki-moon, with #Gambia representative to UN, reiterates commitment to peaceful transfer of power in the country. https://t.co/eEQLX9aKG9 pic.twitter.com/OKgmOKRSIk

— UN Political Affairs (UN_DPA) December 22, 2016

The ECOWAS leaders recently met in Abuja Nigeria, where they asked Yayha Jammeh to acknowledge his defeat. The chairperson of the regional bloc, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said that ECOWAS is considering measures against Gambia’s outgoing Jammeh, to step down before his term ends on January 19.
 
Jammeh has however maintained his hard stance that he wont step down and condemned efforts by the west African leaders to remove him from office. He has lodged an appeal to Gambia’s Constitutional Court to challenge the results of the December 1st polls.

At the same time Jammeh ordered the reopening of the Electoral Commission offices on Thursday, which had been closed since December 13 for security reasons, according to his government.

The reopening is expected to allow the Constitutional Court to pursue the process, which will examine Jammeh’s appeal on January 10.