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Roundup: Parties backing Gambian President Barrow sweep parliamentary polls

Xinhua, April 7, 2017 Adjust font size:

The seven political parties backing Gambia's president Adama Barrow have won 42 out of 53 seats in the country's National Assembly elections held on Thursday, Gambian Independent Electoral Commission announced on Friday.

"UDP won 31 seats, APRC won 5 seats, GDC won 5 seats, PPP won 2 seats and there was one independent candidate who was successful," IEC chairman Alieu Momarr Njai said on Friday.

About 886,000 registered voters cast their votes on Thursday, according to Njai, disappointed by the lower than 42 percent turnout.

Barrow's party from where he resigned to contest as an independent presidential candidate, the United Democratic Party (UDP), won 31 seats, while other 3 parties within the coalition won a total of 11 seats, giving them 42 seats in total.

Former president Yahya Jammeh's Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction party (APRC) has won 5 seats all in his native region of Foni in the Western Region of Gambia.

While the opposition Gambia Democratic Congress party (GDC) also won 5 seats, leaving 1 seat to independent candidate.

The election attracted generally a turnout across the country.

The coalition leaders have promised host of constitutional and legal reforms and this election victory is expected to be a massive boost to them.

There were 9 political parties with a record 239 registered candidates who campaigned for 53 seats in country's parliamentary elections.

Five seats are to be appointed by the president, totaling 58 spots in the small nation's parliament.

The election was monitored by Jammeh's APRC party who only won 5 seats.

The election attracted dozens of observers from the African Union, European Union and officials of the regional economic bloc ECOWAS. There was spot counting process that enables the electorates to know the results even before the IEC declared it.

Gambia's National Assembly used to have a total of 53 members, including 5 appointed by the president. But last year, more constituencies were demarcated, so now it has 58 members with five of them appointed by the president. Endit