Gambia's Jammeh in shock election loss after 22-year rule | Hacker News Reader

Gambia's Jammeh in shock election loss after 22-year rule

reuters.com

52 pointsbandrami23 comments

Then again, The Gambia is special.

They have held multiparty free and open elections from independance until 1994 (Jammeh's coup). This a continent where most countries had experienced Coups, Single-Party rule or both by 1970. (The only country with continuous multiparty democracy is Botswana)

Jammeh himself quickly felt the need to organise elections to legitimize his rule. Sure there was intimidation and other manoeuvers but oddly he almost always won with results in the high 50's. Those are crazy tight results by African standards (even in democracies incumbents rarely go lower than 60).

Apropos of nothing, the proper anglicized name of the country is The Gambia, which along with The Bahamas, are the only two countries whose official names include "The".

Obviously Reuters knows what they're doing and I'm sure adhere quite strictly to their popular style guide, so I find it interesting that their editors omit the "The". I wonder why.

I can't tell what they mean here, but: http://handbook.reuters.com/index.php?title=G#Gambia

"Gambia: Not the Gambia, West Africa"

Sounds like they are specifically not calling it the T/the Gambia, for whatever reason.

I'm not sure it is official, but http://www.un.org/en/member-states/ disagrees.

The only country name starting with "The" on that list is "The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".

It lists Gambia as "Gambia (Islamic Republic of the)" so, according to tHat list, at best, it is "Islamic Republic of the Gambia" (no capital T on 'the')

They are actually both right. Most state's have a short name and long name. The Gambia is one of the few with "The" in the short form, but many have it as part of the long form.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...

I'm not sure where these "conventional short form" names come from, but it's also the primary source for wikipedia titles.

And we had The Ukraine before it dropped the article, for whatever reason. I like the slightly jarring "The" in front of those countries' names. Gives them a little something extra, grammatically.

There's a Wikipedia article devoted to Ukraine's name: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Ukraine

In short, Ukrainian has no definite article, unlike English. Ukraine officially dropped 'the' from the English translation of the country's name after independence. Some Ukrainians find the use of 'the' somewhat insulting as it is the Soviet-era translation and disregards the Ukrainian government translation.

People from Gambia call it Gambia. I suppose they won't feel offended. Maybe the styleguide is just too strict. Or maybe Gambia never heard of it.

The Norwegian Broadcasting Service just announced that he had conceded defeat to the head of the electoral commission.

However, they stressed that Jammeh had not yet publicly conceded.

Defeat and a concession from Jammeh would be momentous.

Yep, that would be huge and unprecedented.

Gambia was recently the subject of an attempted coup by a group of Gambian-American immigrants.

It's a really fascinating story. A group of middle-aged middle-class immigrants from Gambia plotted, and attempted to overthrow Jammeh.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/21/how-former-us-...

Gambia largely lives on tourism. Any political instability could have disastrous effects on the economy. Maybe Jammeh realizes that and will concede peacefully.

> Jammeh's eccentricities often made headlines. He once said he had invented a herbal cure for AIDS that only works on a Thursdays. Once every year he also invited a few hundred women to the grounds of State House, where he personally administered a another herbal cure he had concocted for infertility.

Yeah, that sounds like someone who's gonna peacefully accept election results.

According to the BBC article he has conceded. It may have been hearsay, I don't recall at the moment

More gems: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/y/yahya_jammeh.ht...

Some of those things are pretty true imo (and liberal leaning... the situation in Israel/Palestine being one) and other seem like the ramblings of a conservative mad man.

That's why everybody uses the word "shock"

He has not publicly conceded yet (so we may still get a surprise) but :

- his electoral commission has announced the results

- the head of his electoral commission has announced Jammeh will conceide

- rumour says his concession video has been recorded

- the internet that has been cut-off on election's eve is functionning again

- soldiers who were deployed have left the streets

It really sound this is happening

> - soldiers who were deployed have left the streets

Is it known whether or not the soldiers in this case are loyal to Jammeh? Just thinking about what happened in Burkina with Compaoré.

Jammeh's official title is also 'His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Aziz Awal Jemus Junkung Jammeh Naasiru Deen Babili Mansa" though he's been dropping some titles lately, perhaps he is becoming more sane with age maybe he will concede.

I take offense in you correctly pronouncing that name. Such length is concatenated with the purpose of flinging missrey on those who have to speak them. Behave accordingly.

What?

It is a misfired gag. Basically, a totalitarian emperor, could terrorize his people by making it necessary to greet him in full name- and make that name hard to pronounce and long beyond the wildest dream.

Sorry, the posts irony didn`t really stand out.

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