U.S Senate Foreign Relations Committee resolution expresses support for free, fair, peaceful Election In Gambia

United States Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Senate Majority Whip, Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, and John Boozman (R-Ark.), Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, and John Boozman (R-Ark.), have on 18^th November introduced a bipartisan resolution expressing support for a free, fair, and peaceful presidential election in The Gambia.

 “Gambia’s December 4 presidential elections serve as a crucial milestone in the country’s democratic transition and have the potential to validate that Gambians reject sliding backwards toward the brutality, madness, and dysfunction Yayha Jammeh forced upon them for decades.

 “This resolution is an affirmation of the United States’ commitment to the Gambian people as they enter into these historic presidential elections, continue to work towards building a stronger democracy, and reckon with the abuses and crimes of the past,” said Risch in a statement by the committee.

The resolution in the 117^th Congress on the first post-Jammeh-era election, congratulates the Gambians on the successful 2016 presidential election; supports the courageous and necessary work of the Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission to bring accountability, healing, and reconciliation to the nation; calls on all parties and presidential candidates to participate in a free, fair, credible, and  peaceful December 4, 2021, presidential election; and expresses the support of the American people in The Gambia’s continued and noteworthy democratic path forward.