While the people waited in long queues braving scorching heat to cast their votes, many senior civil servants refused to turn up for voting.

According to IEC voting records seen by What's On-Gambia, they did not cast a ballot in the December 4 presidential election.

Some of these election-skippers occupy very top positions in the Barrow government earning fat salaries and driving luxury cars.

One of them (name withheld) is a highly respected civil servant in Banjul. He was appointed by the president shortly after the 2016 presidential election that ended former President Jammeh's 22-year-old rule.

"I think he abstained due to conflict of interest. Barrow is his boss and Darboe is his friend," said a source.

Despite withholding their votes, the NPP presidential candidate was able to win the election after pulling 457,519 votes representing 53.2 percent of the valid votes cast.

A total of 962,159 Gambians across the country were issued voter cards by the IEC to participate in the election.