By Awa Macalo
The Gambia Democratic Congress has reacted to the Supreme Court decision to strike out the election petition filed by the United Democratic Party against President-elect Adama Barrow and the Independent Electoral Commission, challenging the validity of the December election results.
The apex court on Tuesday struck out the case, stating that the UDP had failed to comply with rule 11 of the Election Petition Rules.
The GDC, who rejected the election results alongside the UDP, decided to support the UDP in their petition having realised that they didn’t have enough evidence to go to court alone.
However, reacting to the ruling, the party national youth president Modou MC Cham, said: “We are disheartened that a major court case of this magnitude will be struck out based on technicalities and not merits. However, the GDC still stood by its position that the election was rigged. In fact, all genuine Gambians know that the election was stolen. That is why Adama Barrow never wanted the case to proceed because he knew he won thanks to bribery and theft. We believe the court should have never favoured technicality over merit. This decision has killed our democracy and emboldened Barrow and IEC. The future of this country is bleak.”
