The top judge in Gambia’s Supreme Court on Monday declined to rule on President Yahya Jammeh’s petition to overturn his election defeat.
The court has not sat for over a year, and all the judges’ seats except that of the chief justice have remained unoccupied.
Jammeh hired judges from Nigeria and Sierra Leone to hear the petition, but all of them have failed to arrive in the country.
“It is crystal clear that the justices from Nigeria and Serra Leone are not coming,” the court’s Nigerian Chief Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle said.
The chief justice said the court would be adjourned until the next regular session in either May or November, but added that the petitions could be heard if the judges arrived sooner.
President Jammeh initially accepted the December 1 poll defeat, and even called president-elect Adama Barrow on live television to wish him well in his reign.
Barely a week later however, the long-serving Gambian leader receded his decision, claiming the election was marred by irregularities.
He called for fresh elections.
West African leaders have been negotiating with jammeh to ask him to hand over power to the president-elect, but he has not bulged.
Barrow is currently in neighbouring Senegal, where he is said to remain until his inauguration.
The inauguration is set for Thursday.
