Tag Archives: vote

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh has ruthlessly pursued opponents real and imaginary, and implied more than once that he would kill anyone who defied him. His magnanimous concession speech and promise of a swift handover to president-elect Adama Barrow after 22 years in power has therefore …

Accra, Ghana | AFP |  Ghana is a resource-rich west African country where worries about the economy are set to dominate Wednesday’s presidential election. Major producer of cocoa, gold  Ghana is the world’s second biggest producer of cocoa after Ivory Coast and Africa’s second biggest gold producer after South Africa. …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | The Gambia’s shock election result awarded president-elect Adama Barrow extra votes by mistake but a recount showed he still won outright, the country’s electoral commission told AFP Tuesday. Alieu Momar Njie, chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, said correct counting on the spot in one …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | President Yahya Jammeh scored only half his previous box office tally in last week’s election, handing victory to opposition coalition leader Adama Barrow. But why did Gambians turn against Jammeh after 22 years in power? Economic crisis A triple blow has been dealt to the …

  Accra, Ghana | AFP | Ghana’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate Nana Akufo-Addo is hoping it’ll be third time lucky when the country votes for a new president on December 7. Akufo-Addo, an erudite rights lawyer and former government minister with round tortoiseshell glasses, narrowly lost the 2008 and …

Accra, Ghana | AFP | Two old foes are stepping back into the ring to fight in Ghana’s hotly contested presidential election on December 7. This is the second time that President John Mahama of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) faces off against Nana Akufo-Addo, leader of the New …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, who was defeated in this week’s poll, seized power in a 1994 coup and clung to office for 22 years with a blend of severity, mysticism and iron-clad self-belief. “No matter what people say about me, I am not moved… I …

Adama Barrow: Gambia’s estate agent of change Banjul, Gambia | AFP | He is quiet, understated and until recently unknown, but now presidential election winner Adama Barrow has become the flagbearer for a new era of change in The Gambia. A political novice whose lack of baggage has endeared him …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambian President Yahya Jammeh faced the strongest electoral challenge of his 22-year rule Thursday as voters went to the polls, braving an internet and phone blackout the government defended as a security measure. After an unprecedented two-week opposition campaign that has energised his rivals, Jammeh …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | Raped, abused and subjected to genital mutilation, many women suffer terribly in Somalia, an unrepentantly patriarchal country shown by successive surveys as one of the worst places to be female. A quota reserving 30 percent of parliamentary seats for women in current elections is supposed …