(BBC) Property developer Adama Barrow says his shock win of the Gambian election heralds new hope for the country.
Yahya Jammeh, an authoritarian president who ruled for 22 years, has confirmed he will step down.
“I will help him work towards the transition,” Mr Jammeh said on state TV on Friday evening, after speaking to the president-elect by telephone.
Mr Barrow, 51, who has never held political office, won Thursday’s election with 45.5% of the vote.
Hundreds of Gambians took to the streets to celebrate one of the biggest election upsets West Africa has ever seen.
Mr Jammeh, also 51, took power in a bloodless coup in 1994 and has ruled the country with an iron fist ever since.
President Jammeh took 36.7% of the vote, while a third party candidate, Mama Kandeh, won just 17.8%.
The BBC’s Umaru Fofana, who spoke to Mr Barrow, said the president-elect seemed bewildered by the result.
President Jammeh has congratulated the property developer and vowed not to contest the results after deciding “that I should take the backseat”.
Who is Adama Barrow?
I am very, very, very happy. I’m excited that we win (sic) this election and from now hope starts,” Mr Barrow told the BBC’s Umaru Fofana, adding that he was disappointed not to have won by a larger margin.
Born in 1965 near the eastern market town of Basse, Mr Barrow moved to London in the 2000s where he reportedly used to work as a security guard at an Argos catalogue store.
He returned to The Gambia in 2006 to set up his own property company, which he still runs today.
Mr Barrow, who is leading an opposition coalition of seven parties, has promised to revive the country’s struggling economy, look at imposing a two-term presidential limit and introduce a three-year transitional government.
Why was it such a shock? By Alastair Leithead, BBC Africa correspondent
Despite a surge of support for an opposition broadly united behind one candidate, most people expected the status quo to prevail.
Hopes weren’t high for a peaceful transfer of power, with a crackdown on opposition leaders months before the polls, the banning of international observers or post-election demonstrations, and then the switching off of the internet on election day.
But in a place where glass beads are used in place of ballot papers, it seems that the marbles have spoken.
The unseating of an incumbent president is not the usual way politics goes in this part of the world – but it’s becoming popular in West Africa at least, with Muhammadu Buhari unseating Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria just last year.
Former businessman Adama Barrow now has his chance to tackle the poverty and unemployment which drives so many young Gambians to join the Mediterranean migrant trail every year.
How has incumbent President Jammeh reacted?
The incumbent president has asked his successor to set up a time to meet and organise the transition period.
Yahya Jammeh, a devout Muslim, had once said he would rule for “one billion years” if “Allah willed it”.
