By Olimatou Coker
The ruling NPP and its arch-rival opposition UDP have each won four councils in the keenly contested mayoral and local government chairmanship elections Saturday.
The UDP’s Rohey Lowe won Banjul, the capital; Talib Bensouda won the main urban metropolis of the Kanifing municipality; Yankuba Darboe won the most populous local government region of West Coast; and Landing Sanneh won Lower River Region.
The NPP’s Papa Tunkara defeated the incumbent UDP chairman in North Bank Region; Saikou Jawara won Central River North; Sulayman Sawaneh took Central River South; and Mahamadou Ceesay entrenched the greys’ dominance in Upper River Region.
PPP, PDOIS, GDC, GFA and the independents failed to win a single seat.
Margins
The UDP scored 209,465 votes; NPP 194,247; PDOIS 3,796; GDC 2,614; PPP 2,023; GFA 1,227; and 44,974 for the independents, with Ebrima Sanneh from Brikama, who is supported by the Yahya Jammeh APRC breakaway faction, (the so-called No–to-the-Coalition Alliance Movement) alone getting 24,558 votes mainly from the Foñis.
In Banjul, Rohey Lowe beat NPP’s Ebou Faye by 1,307 votes. In Kanifing, Bensouda beat NPP’s Minister Bakary Badjie by 13,662 votes with the Jammeh-backed APRC faction candidate Pa Modou Mbowe getting a paltry 5,092 votes. In Brikama, Yankuba Darboe defeated NPP’s Seedy Ceesay by 25,517. Ceesay on his part outvoted his former NPP mate Ahmed Gitteh by 45,711 votes.
In Mansa Konko, UDP’s Landing Sanneh outpolled NPP’s Kebba Dem by 3,260 votes.
In Kerewan, NPP’s Tunkara beat the UDP incumbent Malamin Bojang by 1,558 votes.
In Kuntaur NPP’s Saihou Jawara beat his main contender Alhagi Sillah of the UDP by 3,316 votes while on the south side of the river in Janjangbureh, Sulayman Sawaneh of the NPP beat UDP’s Malick Sowe by 3699. Haruna Barry got the sum total of GDC’s 2,614 in the election here.
In Basse, NPP’s Mahamadou Ceesay walloped his closest rival the incumbent Foday Danjo of the UDP by 19,955 votes.
The elections were scored highly by a majority of the local observers.
