UDP Label Results Fraudulent Friday, 25 November 2011 23:15

Ousainou Darboe

(JollofNews) – Lawyer Ousainou Darboe of Gambia’s main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) has rejected results of Thursday’s presidential polls, saying the whole electoral process was “neither free nor fair.”

The electoral commission declared President Yahya Jammeh winner of the race, polling 72 percent of the votes as compared to Mr. Darboe’s 17 percent.

In a statement, Mr. Darboe swiftly expressed his party’s grievances. “UDP/GMC United Alliance vehemently and unconditionally rejects the results of the just

concluded Presidential Elections as announced by the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission. The results are bogus, fraudulent, and constitute a capricious usurpation of the will of the people,” reads a UDP/GMC statement obtained by Jollofnews.

While urging “Gambian citizens not to be hoodwinked by the results of such a conspicuously flawed process,” Lawyer Darboe urged the international community to refrain from validating what he called “the results of this preposterous fabrication.” He said his party and its allies would “respond to these unacceptable results with appropriate action.”

Mr. Darboe’s claims came after the regional economic grouping ECOWAS refused to send an observer team to monitor the Gambia’s presidential polls, complaining that the electoral process was marred by intimidation and unfairness.

Yahya Jammeh of the Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Reconciliation (APRC) received 470,550 votes, representing 72 percent. Mr. Darboe secured 114,177 votes while Hamat Bah, an independent candidate, got 73,060 votes.