A day after the country’s Supreme Court advised an out-of-court settlement, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has appointed a mediator to liaise between him and the President-elect Adama Barrow.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how Emmanuel Fagbenle, Gambia’s Chief Justice, advised the settlement after ruling that the court could not hear Mr. Jammeh and his party’s appeal against the result of the presidential election due to non-formation of constitutionally required quorum of 5 Supreme Court judges.

Mr. Fagbenle advised Mr. Jammeh and his party to either adopt the West African ECOWAS peace initiative led by President Muhammadu Buhari or utilise Gambia’s Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism .

On Wednesday, Mr. Jammeh appointed a mediator to facilitate meetings between himself and Mr. Barrow.

Mr. Jammeh, who ruled the small West African nation with an iron fist for more than two decades, refuses to accept the result of the December 1 presidential polls, which saw him lose power.

Mr. Barrow, a former real estate agent, who was little known before he announced his candidacy, is scheduled to take office on January 19.

The ruling party’s secretary general will mediate between Mr. Jammeh’s supporters and the opposition to “resolve any mistrust and issues,” Mr. Jammeh said in a televised address to the nation early Wednesday.

He refuses to accept the election result because it was “full of arithmetic errors and anomalies, it also could not be credibly explained,” the outgoing president added.

Mr. Jammeh ordered the justice minister and national assembly to draft a general amnesty bill, while issuing an executive order not to arrest or prosecute citizens for “acts or omissions’’ committed during the pre and post electoral period, between November 1 and January 31.

The announcement comes a day after the Supreme Court postponed hearing on a court petition filed by Mr. Jammeh to challenge the election results.

The case was adjourned to Monday, since only one of a required minimum of five judges was present, the court’s registrar said.

Several West African heads of state meanwhile postponed a meeting with Mr. Jammeh aimed at helping to resolve the political crisis from Wednesday to Friday.

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh will effectively become a “rebel leader” if he fails to leave office at the end of his mandate in January, the nation’s government-in-waiting said on Sunday.

Halifa Sallah, a spokesperson for the opposition coalition that spurred president-elect Adama Barrow to victory over Jammeh in a December 1 poll, said the longtime leader had no constitutional mandate to remain in office beyond January.

“Any president who loses constitutional legitimacy becomes a rebel,” Sallah said.

“Anybody who is a military officer or civil servant who refuses to be under another constitutional authority obviously would also become a rebel,” he added.

The Gambia’s top brass have flip-flopped over whether they will remain loyal to Jammeh, drawing warnings from the international community.

Barrow’s inauguration

West African presidents, meanwhile, called on Gambian security forces to act in the national interest and “protect lives and property” in a statement issued after talks among the regional Ecowas bloc on Saturday.

Sallah read an address to the nation on Barrow’s behalf that made clear the president-elect intended to take power in January once Jammeh’s five-year mandate expired.

“The constitution orders that I assume office on the day the term of office of outgoing President Jammeh expires. He assumed office on 19th January 2012. His term expires in January 2017,” Barrow said in the statement.

“On the day his term expires my term as the lawful President of The Gambia begins,” he added.

The west African leaders attending Saturday’s summit will attend Barrow’s inauguration, they said, and would “take all necessary actions to enforce the results”.

“Head of States will attend the inauguration of the President-elect Adama Barrow who must be sworn in on 19th January 2017 in conformity with the Gambian constitution,” an Ecowas statement said.

Peaceful transfer of power

The group called on Jammeh to accept the result of the result and “refrain from any action likely to compromise the transition and peaceful transfer of power”.

This followed talks held by four west African heads of state dispatched to Banjul on Tuesday that failed to yield a deal with Jammeh to cede power.

Meanwhile a planned transition with Jammeh’s involvement looks near impossible.

Jammeh initially conceded defeat after 22 years in power on state television, in a segment broadcast on December 2.

One week later, following a recount of the results that still gave Barrow a narrow win, Jammeh said he was voiding the election.

Since then his Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction party has lodged a controversial complaint with the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the result.

An avalanche of international condemnation has followed, along with reports that Barrow is fearing for his safety with no state protection.

Gambia’s army chief has pledged allegiance to President-elect Adama Barrow, Mr. Barrow’s spokeswoman has said, reinforcing hopes that the tiny West African nation will see its first peaceful change of power in more than half a century.

A self-made real estate developer who once worked as a security guard at retailer Argos in London, Mr. Barrow beat incumbent Yahya Jammeh in last Thursday’s election.

Mr. Jammeh, an autocrat who had banned opposition protests and pledged to rule Gambia for a “billion years”, shocked Gambians by admitting defeat, raising questions about what had persuaded him that the game was up.

“General Badjie called to congratulate Barrow on his victory and to offer his allegiance,” spokeswoman Amie Bojang told journalists in Banjul.

An army spokesman was not immediately available to comment.

Though Mr. Jammeh called Mr. Barrow to congratulate him on his victory last week, the pair had not met since the vote. The constitution says he must hand over a month after the poll.

Mr. Jammeh took power in a 1994 coup that unseated Dawda Jawara, the country’s leader since its independence from Great Britain in 1965.

Welcomed at first on a promise of ending corruption, Mr. Jammeh became increasingly intolerant of dissent, jailing and torturing opponents, human rights groups say.

His unexpected defeat was greeted with joy in Banjul, the capital, with crowds pulling down the ubiquitous posters of a grinning Mr. Jammeh and trampling them under foot.

Gambians are hoping the quiet businessman Mr. Barrow will bring a new era of stability, after living under a president who arrested people for being witches and wizards and claimed to have magical herbal cures for AIDS and infertility.

Mr. Barrow has promised to end rights abuses and step down after three years as a boost to democracy.

A heavy police presence remains on the streets, a hangover from an era many Gambians are hoping is now behind them.

In the last two days, 31 political prisoners have been released or granted bail.

Mai Ahmed Fatty, the head of Barrow’s coalition transition team told journalists in Banjul that he was not worried that a meeting between Jammeh and Barrow has not yet taken place.

“We take the outgoing president at his word,” said Fatty. “Part of our request was to release the political prisoners. This was done and it shows good will.”