Gambia MPs extend Jammeh's term

Gambia’s national assembly has adopted a resolution to allow Pres­ident Yahya Jammeh to stay in pow­er for three more months, starting from Wednesday, just hours before the end of his official term.

Jammeh, who has ruled the small West African country for 22 years, initially ac­knowledged opponent Adama Barrow as the winner of elections in December, but later rejected the ballot count as flawed and lodged a complaint with the country’s Su­preme Court.

Barrow, who is currently in Senegal, is scheduled to take office on Thursday.

He insists his inauguration will proceed as planned.

The move by the Gambian parliament comes a day after Jammeh declared a 90-day state of emergency , alleging “unprec­edented and extraordinary amount of for­eign interference” in the country’s internal affairs.

“The decision to declare a state of emer­gency was taken by the national parliament, but the only people who are sitting in par­liament are the members of Jammeh’s po­litical party,” Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from neighbouring Senegal’s capital, Dakar, said.

Jammeh is refusing to step down despite international pressure and a threat by l ead­ers of the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, of a military intervention to make him hand over to Bar­row.