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).
Quite often the IMF is an easy scapegoat.
You'd be surprised by how often the IMF advice is ignored or by how sound it can be at times.
For instance, in Ukraine a few years ago, the IMF's advice was to cut down on some structural expenses (gas subsidies mostly) and not to touch investment expenses as doing that would trigger a recession.
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).