Banjul — Gambian President Yahya Jammeh will face a rare challenge from a revitalised and united opposition in an election on Thursday as he seeks to extend his 22-year grip on power in the tiny West African nation. Jammeh, 51, seized power as a young army officer in a 1994 coup and has maintained his control over Gambia in four subsequent elections despite growing international concern over his government’s deteriorating human rights record. Election observers have questioned the credibility of past polls. Regional bloc ecowas boycotted the last election in 2011, claiming the process was not free or fair and have also stayed away from this week’s poll. The European Union said this month that it had been refused access to monitor. In the final days of campaigning, a grinning Jammeh stared out from the large billboards positioned every few hundred metres along the main roads leading into Banjul, the capital of the nation of 1.8-million people. "I am the best president that Gambians w...
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