Presidential elections were held in

the Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

on 24 November 2011. Incumbent President

Yahya Jammeh Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh (born 25 May 1965) is a Gambian politician and former soldier, who served as President of the Gambia from 1996 to 2017. He was the Chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) from 1994 ...

, in office since seizing power in a 1994 coup, faced

Ousainou Darboe A.N.M Ousainou Darboe (born 8 August 1948) is a Gambian politician and leader of the main opposition United Democratic Party (The Gambia), United Democratic Party (UDP). He previously served as Vice-President of the Gambia and Minister of Women's ...

of the United Democratic Party and Hamat Bah of the National Alliance for Democracy and Development. The elections were won by Jammeh, who received 72% of the vote on an 83% turnout.

Electoral system

Voting took place using marbles dropped into coloured containers each containing a gong.

Conduct

The elections were monitored by the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...

who praised the process,

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Organisation of Islamic Cooperation The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC; ; ), formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1969. It consists of Member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, 57 member s ...

and

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

. The

Economic Community of West African States The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as CEDEAO in French and Portuguese) is a regional political and economic union of twelve countries of West Africa. Collectively, the present and former members comprise an area ...

(ECOWAS) did not send any monitors because of "an unacceptable level of control of the electronic media by the party in power... and an opposition and electorate cowed by repression and intimidation". Before the elections Jammeh had claimed "I will never compromise peace and stability at the altar of so-called democracy", that "there is no way I can lose unless you tell me that all Gambian people are mad" and in response to press criticism said "The journalists are less than 1% of the population and if anybody expects me to allow less than 1% of the population to destroy 99% of the population, you are in the wrong place." On the election day Bah claimed that he had not heard of any intimidation of his supporters although Darboe claimed the vote was fraudulent, rejected the result and complained of intimidation from the presence of military vehicles on the streets. The Independent Electoral Commission also said there was no intimidation and that "it is impossible to rig elections in Gambia". There was also criticism of the election organisation as many voters went to the wrong polling station.

Results

References

Presidential elections in the Gambia

Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

Presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

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