Opposition leader Ousainou Darboe has said he will concede defeat if the 4 December presidential election is conducted in a free and fair manner. 

Gambians will head to the polls on Saturday in a hotly contested election since the reintroduction of democracy five years ago.

This is Darboe’s fourth time he is contesting the presidential election and had previously to former strongman Yahya Jammeh.

“I am waded to the Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia and once the results are declared and is a free and fair contest, I have no choice but to accept it and even if I do not accept it, my only recourse is to go to courts, that’s my only recourse. 

“So, acceptance, nobody should think that Ousainou Darboe will only resort to any measure that will destabilise the tranquillity and stability of this country,” the leader of the country’s largest opposition party said.

But he also said his party has been winning elections that were later rigged by the Jammeh regime. 

Darboe expressed confidence of winning Saturday’s presidential election.

“What makes me confident that this time around I will be declared the winner is because the environment is completely different. The previous elections we saw that we won but we were not declared the winner,” he said.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba