Military takes over office of Gambian electoral commission

Gambia’s security forces have taken over the building of the Independent Electoral Commission.

Alieu Momarr Njai, chairman of the commission, told Reuters that he was worried, revealing that employees of the electoral body have been entering the building.

“The military came to my office and said I am not to touch anything and told me to leave,” he said.

“I am worried for my safety.”

African leaders are currently in the country to pacify President Yahya Jammeh to respect the will of the people and step down following his defeat in an election.

Jammeh has declined to relinquish power in spite of initially conceding that he had lost to opponent Adama Barrow in the election on December 1.

“We hope that the will of the people prevails,’’ Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s president and ECOWAS chairwoman, told reporters on arrival.

Other heads of state taking part are President Muhammadu Buhari, Sierra Leone’s Ernest Bai Koroma and Ghana’s John Mahama, who lost an election recently and conceded defeat.

A witness said several of them rode in Rolls-Royces with Jammeh’s name embroidered on the headrests and then departed for the president’s office.

“We will be asking President Jammeh to respect his country’s Constitution, and to maintain the inviolability of the electoral process,’’ Buhari said on Twitter.

Diplomats say if Jammeh seeks to cling to power after negotiations fail, neighbours might consider options for removing him by force.

The delegation was also due to meet Barrow, who has said he would annul Jammeh’s declaration of Gambia as an Islamic republic among other reforms.

Report says Jammeh seized power in a coup in 1994; this has earned him a reputation as a repressive leader.