BANJUL, Gambia — Residents of Gambia awoke Saturday to a surreal joy and hope for a freer future after they finally shook off a long era of oppression by voting President Yahya Jammeh out of office.
For 22 years, Gambians have lived under the threat of imprisonment or even death if they spoke out against Mr. Jammeh’s strange and violent government in this tiny West African nation. Now, finally, the fear is gone.
“He was like God,” said Bintou Ceesay, a hairdresser who voted against Mr. Jammeh and sobbed in happiness when she learned of the election’s outcome. “Now it is over.”
Mr. Jammeh’s defeat on Thursday was a surprise, but what was even more shocking was that a man who seemed to relish his absolute authority would so calmly let it go. In an even-toned concession speech broadcast Friday on state television, Mr. Jammeh declared that he would abide by what he called God’s will for him to hand over the presidency to the winner, Adama Barrow.
Mr. Barrow, 51, a real estate agent with no political experience, quickly ascended late in the campaign to become the leader of the opposition coalition. Mr. Jammeh phoned him on Friday, and in what was described as a pleasant conversation joked with him and offered to help with the transition.
Mr. Jammeh seized power in a coup in 1994, and his rule has been anything but predictable. Human rights groups have denounced him for threatening to behead gay people, ordering so-called sorcerers to be hunted and killed, and arresting and prosecuting journalists and supporters of the opposition. His government prosecuted and jailed critics, some of whom wound up dead, and thousands of citizens have fled into exile.
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“You are the elected president of the Gambia, and I wish you all the best,” Mr. Jammeh told Mr. Barrow during the call. “My time is up.”
Mr. Jammeh was initially reluctant to accept the election results, according to a top military intelligence official close to the president.
As returns coming in from major regions clearly indicated that he was going to lose, Mr. Jammeh asked his key advisers to annul the votes, the official said. He then gathered at the statehouse his top military security advisers, police officers and intelligence officials and asked for their support to discredit the vote.
The officers told him that chaos would break out if they did so. Tempers flared at the meeting, said the official, who declined to be named because of the top-secret nature of the gathering. But eventually, Mr. Jammeh agreed to concede.
Speculation had been rampant that Mr. Jammeh had fled the country in the wake of the election, but the official said Mr. Jammeh remained in Gambia.
On Saturday, the streets in the capital, Banjul, were largely calm. But Friday night, thousands celebrated across Gambia, the smallest nation on continental Africa. Young people burned posters with photographs of Mr. Jammeh and currency bills, which bear his image. Even the inspector general of the police was spotted among the crowd of celebrants.
This year in the period before the election, the security forces arrested more than 90 opposition activists for participating in peaceful protests. Thirty activists, including the leader of the largest opposition party, the United Democratic Party, were prosecuted and sentenced to three years in prison. Two other opposition protesters died in custody, including the opposition party’s national organizing secretary, Solo Sandeng, who was beaten to death at the country’s National Intelligence Agency in April, according to an Amnesty International report.
Human rights groups tried to draw attention to Mr. Jammeh’s abuses with numerous reports outlining deaths and torture suffered by his opponents. Western nations criticized Mr. Jammeh and threatened sanctions. He began courting nations in the Middle East for aid.
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On Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement hailing “the first democratic transfer of power in the country.”
“I also commend President Jammeh for respecting the results and for agreeing to peacefully transfer power to the president-elect,” Mr. Kerry said.
Some of the exiles and thousands of other Gambians spread across the world already were reported to be packing bags to return to a home that they had not dared visit in years, according to their posts on social media sites. The sheer terror at the mere mention of Mr. Jammeh had so penetrated numerous exiles in Senegal, the country that borders Gambia on three sides, that few dared even speak his name, convinced that spies would report them.
Lamin Jammeh, an auto mechanic in Kololi, Gambia, who is not related to Mr. Jammeh, said he had been so rattled by the election results that he had left home without locking his front door. He stayed out celebrating with friends until 4 a.m. Saturday.
“Wow,” he said. “We are finally free.”
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