Yahya Jammeh:

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh said he would not step down and condemned mediation by West African regional bloc ECOWAS that aims to get him to leave power after he lost a Dec. 1 election to challenger Adama Barrow, according to report by Voice of America.

The comments on state television late Tuesday were a hardening of the veteran president’s position after days in which hopes mounted he could be persuaded to hand over power at the end of his mandate on Jan. 18, when Barrow is due to be inaugurated.

“I am not a coward. My right cannot be intimidated and violated. This is my position. Nobody can deprive me of that victory except the Almighty Allah,” Jammeh said.

“Already the ECOWAS meeting was a formality. Before they came, they had already said Jammeh must step down. I will not step down,” he said.

Jammeh initially accepted the results of an election whose outcome was seen across Africa as a moment of hope. He is accused by human rights groups of the detention, torture and killing of perceived opponents during his 22-year rule.

On Dec. 9, he reversed his position and said he would challenge in the country’s Supreme Court the results of an election he said was riddled with irregularities.

Meanwhile the  president-elect says he is ready to take office in January despite the refusal by the West African country’s longtime ruler to accept his election loss.

“On the day his term expires, my term as the lawful president of the Gambia begins,” Barrow said in a statement late Sunday. “This is the law of the land. My status as incoming president has unquestionable constitutional legitimacy.”

The summit of the Economic Community of West African States also pledged to “guarantee the safety and protection of the president-elect,” who has said he fears for his life.

Barrow urged Jammeh to accept his loss “in the spirit of national reconciliation.”

Jammeh seized power in a 1994 coup and has been accused by rights groups of human rights abuses.

Jammeh’s party, the Alliance for Construction and Reorientation, has filed a petition challenging the election results at the Supreme Court. The court, however, has not sat for over a year.

The Independent Electoral Commission has stood by a vote it has called transparent, fair and accurate.

Read more at http://www.voanews.com/a/gambia-barrow-jammeh-election-dispute/3641927.html