The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has said that Senegalese troops are on alert to intervene in The Gambia if President Yahya Jammeh refuses to hand over power next year to Adama Barrow.
According to Ceoafrica, President Yahya Jammeh initially accepted defeat in the 1st of December poll, but later said it was flawed, due to some anomalies he discovered thereby calling for fresh probe with complacent electoral body officials.
The Ecowas chairman, Marcel Alain de Souza, said Senegal had been chosen to lead operations "to restore the people's wishes" if needed, which came over President Jammeh’s statement that ECOWAS had no authority to interfere, and that he would not be intimidated.
Jammeh, who has ruled the Gambia for 22 years, has lodged a case before the Supreme Court to annul the vote after the electoral commission changed some results, in which the commission insists the outcome was not affected by an initial error and that property developer, Adama Barrow, won the poll and should be inaugurated on 19 January.
The ECOWAS commission said President Yahya Jammeh has until 19th of January to comply with its mediators.
"If he is not going, we have stand-by forces already alerted and these stand-by forces have to be able to intervene to restore the people's wish," he said.
The Gambia, a former British colony, is surrounded on three sides by Senegal, in which "Senegal has been selected by its peers to lead the operations but we do not wish to start a conflict," Mr de Souza said.
The Gambia’s election results which led to President Yahya Jammeh’s defeat goes thus: Adama Barrow won 222,708 votes (43.3%), President Yahya Jammeh took 208,487 (39.6%) and A third-party candidate, Mama Kandeh, won 89,768 (17.1%)
Results were revised by the electoral commission on 5th of December, when it emerged that the ballots for one area was added incorrectly.
