 |
| President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia |
With intense pressure from regional leaders Gambia’s President Yayah
Jammeh on Wednesday appointed a mediator to facilitate meetings between himself
and president-elect Adama Barrow.
Jammeh, who ruled the small West
African nation with an iron fist for more than two decades, refuses to accept
the result of the Dec. 1 presidential polls, which saw him, lose power.
Barrow, a former real estate agent,
who was little known before he announced his candidacy, is scheduled to take
office on Jan. 19.
The ruling party’s secretary
general will mediate between Jammeh’s supporters and the opposition to “resolve
any mistrust and issues,’’ Jammeh said in a televised address to the nation
early Wednesday.
He refuses to accept the election
result because it was “full of arithmetic errors and anomalies, it also could
not be credibly explained,’’ the outgoing president added.
Jammeh ordered the justice minister
and national assembly to draft a general amnesty bill, while issuing an
executive order not to arrest or prosecute citizens for “acts or omissions’’
committed during the pre and post electoral period, between Nov. 1 and Jan. 31.
The announcement comes a day after
the Supreme Court postponed hearing a court petition filed by Jammeh to
challenge the election results.
The case was adjourned to Monday,
since only one of a required minimum of five judges was present, the court’s
registrar said.
Several West African heads of state
meanwhile postponed a meeting with Jammeh aimed at helping to resolve the political
crisis from Wednesday to Friday.
No comments:
Post a Comment