BANJUL, Gambia – Lines of voters snaked around corners outside polling stations in Gambia’s capital on Saturday as the nation holds a presidential election that for the first time in decades does not include former president Yahya Jammeh as a candidate.
Polls opened to high turnout, with many people lining up at the capital´s Independence Stadium before sunrise.
Nearly 1 million voters were expected to drop marbles into one of six ballot bins, each adorned with the face and name of a candidate, AP reported.
They include incumbent President Adama Barrow, who defeated Jammeh in 2016 while running as the candidate for an opposition coalition.
Barrow’s challengers are former mentor and head opposition leader Ousainou Darboe of the United Democratic Party; Mama Kandeh of Gambia Democratic Congress; Halifa Sallah of People´s Democratic Organization for Independence and Socialism; Abdoulie Ebrima Jammeh of the National Unity Party; and Essa Mbye Faal, former lead counsel of Gambia’s truth commission, who is running under an independent ticket.
They have all vowed to run under an agenda for change and a stronger economy in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic so fewer Gambians feel compelled to travel the dangerous migration route to Europe.
