Gambian parliamentary election, 2007

This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
the Gambia

Politics portal

A parliamentary election was held in the Gambia on 25 January 2007. Forty-eight members of the National Assembly were elected, with another five being appointed by the President.[1] 103 candidates had been approved by the Independent Electoral Commission, and only the ruling party, the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), contested all 48 seats.[2] The APRC won 42 seats. Turnout was 41.7 per cent.[1]

After the election, President Yahya Jammeh said that "constituencies that voted the opposition should not expect my government's development projects. I want to teach people that opposition in Africa does not pay." He expressed satisfaction with the results and said that "voters have thrown out the two empty barrels from the National Assembly"; this was believed to be a reference to the defeat of two prominent opposition politicians, Halifa Sallah and Hamat Bah. Salleh blamed the opposition's poor performance in the election on a split in its ranks and said that he intended to retire from politics.[3]

Results

 Summary of the 25 January 2007 National Assembly of the Gambia election results
Parties Votes % Seats +/-
Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) 157,392 59.7 42 –3
United Democratic Party (UDP) 57,545 21.8 4 +4 ¹
National Alliance for Democracy and Development (NADD) 29,773 11.3 1 –2 ²
Independents 18,751 7.1 1 +1
APRC (appointed by the president)     5 0
Total 263,461 100.0 53
The UDP boycotted the 2002 elections.

The NADD lost in comparison to the combined number of seats of the People's Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) with two seats and the National Reconciliation Party (NRP) with one seat.

References

  1. 1 2 "Gambia's ruling party wins majority", Al Jazeera, January 26, 2007.
  2. Q&A: Gambian legislative elections, BBC News, January 25, 2007.
  3. "Gambian President laughs at opponents", afrol News, January 29, 2007.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, February 28, 2013. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.