With election results like Brexit and Trump becoming president, we thought that 2016 couldn’t produce any more mad election results. Well, we were wrong, and 2016 the year of shock as outdone itself once again.
Adama Barrow, a former security guard at an Argos in North London, has secured a landslide presidential victory in Gambia to put an end to the 22 year rule of its former president Yahya Jammeh. The former president had boldly promised to rule for a “billion years”, but Barrow won 45% of the total vote while Jammeh won just 36%.
Omar Jallow, an opposition leader, commented on the shock result saying, “we are happy to be free. We are able to free the Gambian people from the clutches of dictatorship, and we are now going to make sure Gambia becomes a bastion of peace and coalition”.
Jammah rose to power in a coup d’etat in 94′ and has retained power since then by removing the constitutional law that sets limits to presidential terms. Although 2016 has brought plenty of negative shocks and upsets, this looks like it really could be one of the best surprises on the political landscape this year.