Gambia’s President-elect Adama Barrow has told the BBC he will declare himself president on 18 January regardless of President Yahya Jammeh’s rejection of the election result.
Mr Barrow said his team was preparing for the event despite security concerns:
“Our position is very very clear. I’m President-elect, we advise the president to cooperate.
We have a team that is working on our inauguration. We are working on it; on the 18th, I’m the legal president of this country.”
Mr Barrow also insisted that a statement by a member of his team that Mr Jammeh would be prosecuted could have been misquoted and said his government would focus on “truth and reconciliation”.
Mr Jammeh challenged the result after the electoral commission revised the vote tally, giving Mr Barrow a smaller margin of victory.
There is speculation that he could have been motivated by calls for his prosecution.
Mr Barrow said he had been surprised at the U-turn – particularly after Mr Jammeh had called him to congratulate him – and rejected suggestions that the election could be run again.
Speaking about the revised election tally he said:
Both of our camps knew about it because we tabulate our own figures.
After the error was made, the IEC (Independent Electoral Commission) called both parties. At the counting centres, the figures remained the same. All of them accepted the results; both parties signed the results.”
However Mr Jammeh is believed to retain the support of key members of the security forces, apparently including army chief Ousmane Badjie, who arrived at a meeting with West African leaders on Tuesday wearing a badge showing Mr Jammeh.
Rights group Human Rights Watch has urged the army not to launch a crackdown on the opposition and its supporters, saying the military must put human rights above loyalty to Mr Jammeh.
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