Following the political upheaval that erupted in the Gambia after the recent Presidential elections conducted in the country, West African regional leaders who travelled to forestall more challenges, have failed to convince Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh, who has lost and rejected the results of the election, to allow power transition.

Leaders from Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, travelled to Gambia in a failed attempt to strike a deal with the president to make him leave power, as attempts made to convince Jammeh to relinquish power to the winner of the election, Adama Barrow proved abortive.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who led the ECOWAS delegation, said “It is not time for a deal. It is not something that can happen in one day. It is something that we have to work on.”

The regional leaders will meet again on Saturday, in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, to further seek a solution to the crisis.

*Gambian opposition leader Adama Barrow (C) arrives for a meeting with the regional economic bloc ECOWAS on December 13, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Meanwhile, ECOWAS President, Marcel Alain de Souza warned on Tuesday that military intervention could be considered if the Gambian president avoided to step down.

The Head of the president’s party, the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction, has filed a petition with Gambia’s Supreme Court demanding a fresh vote with a re-validated voter registry.

The document, which was filed against the election commission and Gambia’s attorney general on Tuesday, said the recent election should be invalidated because, it said, the vote was not conducted fairly.

The petition read “The petition prays that it be determined that the said Adama Barrow was not duly elected or returned as president and that the said election was void.”

However, it was not clear what the filing of the petition with the Supreme Court would entail, as some of the institution’s judges have been dismissed by Jammeh himself in a previous row.

The election commission’s chairman, Alieu Momar Njie, referring to the time when Jammeh dismissed the judges, said “The only recourse when you have any problems with the results of the elections... one has to appeal to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court has been dormant since May 2015.”

Barrow has however, denounced Jammeh’s rejection of the vote results and said the president lacks the constitutional authority to call for a new vote or to invalidate the election.

The United States, the United Nations Security Council, and international organizations have also called for a peaceful transition of power.