By Omar Bah
After a week of waiting and speculations over its intention about the presidential election, the main opposition United Democratic Party has confirmed that it will file a petition against the results at the courts today. This followed the party’s rejection of the December 4 polls which was declared by the electoral commission to have been won by incumbent Adama Barrow who received the highest number of votes between the six candidates who contested the presidency. The UDP’s rejection of the results led to heightened tension with its supporters converging at leader Ousainu Darboe’s residence protesting and seeking updates on the party’s next line of action. Though the party did not share its findings with the media, its supporters alleged, without advancing evidence, that the wide margin of Barrow’s unprecedented turnout in the election looked suspicious.
According to our source, throughout last week, the party’s polling agents and legal team have been busy going over every little detail about the election process in order to determine whether the alleged irregularities are widespread or substantial enough to make a case.
“We can now authoritatively say that we are going to file a case at the courts on Tuesday. We had intended to do it Monday but later decided to do it Tuesday (today),” Almameh Fanding Taal party spokesman told The Standard yesterday.
