That is not a straight-forward task after COVID-19 crippled tourism under Barrow and shrank the tiny economy in 2020. It has also put pressure on Barrow to convince voters that he has dragged the country out of its difficult past.
The move has split Jammeh’s APRC party, some members of which have formed an alliance with Barrow’s NPP. In a string of speeches by telephone, he has urged crowds of rapt listeners not to vote for Barrow and has persuaded supporters to join a coalition run by opposition candidate Mama Kandeh, who came third in 2016 and who Jammeh has described as his “slave”. Last week, Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) said between 240 and 250 people died at the hands of the state under Jammeh, and recommended that those responsible be prosecuted. He fled to Equatorial Guinea in 2017 after refusing to accept defeat to Barrow, ending a tenure marked by killing, torture, financial plunder and false claims of a homemade cure for AIDS. Gambians go to the polls on Saturday and for the first time in 27 years Jammeh, who took power in a 1994 coup, will not be on the ballot. “(President) Adama Barrow destroyed everything good I left for Gambians to benefit from – the hospitals, agriculture and education,” Jammeh said to enthusiastic applause. BANJUL (Reuters) – At a pre-election rally last month, supporters of Gambia’s main opposition coalition cheered the opening of the star attraction – a speech by former President Yahya Jammeh delivered over a crackly phone line from exile 2,000 miles away.
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