Culled from The BBC Lead grows for Gambia's president Gambian turned out in large numbers to vote President Yahya Jammeh has built up a sizeable lead in the vote count following Thursday's presidential election in Gambia. Officials say turnout was over 80% and that voting was extended in many parts of the country because of delays in the delivery of electoral materials. Results so far 50% votes counted Jammeh 57% Darboe 31% Others 12% Source: Electoral Commission Final results are expected by the end of the day and if none of the five candidates secures the 51% of votes needed to win outright, the election goes to a second round. Electoral commission chairman Gibril Roberts announced on state television that with half the votes counted, Mr Jammeh has 57% while his main challenger, lawyer Mr Ousainou Darboe, who leads an opposition coalition, is trailing in second place with just over 30% of the votes counted. Complaint Mr Darboe has strongly criticised a last-minute decision by the Electoral Commission to relax procedures for identifying voters at the polling booths. Jammeh might be vulnerable if a second round is needed At first the commission had said only people on the official final voters' register could vote. But then it reversed that decision and said those with a voter's card who appeared on a draft register, or "counterfoil" could cast a ballot. The BBC's Mark Doyle says there are almost bound to be disputes about this change of heart. The vote He says on the whole, voting appeared to have gone peacefully, despite tensions in the run-up to the poll which left at least one opposition supporter dead during clashes with police. Darboe is unhappy over use of identity cards The more than half a million Gambians who were eligible to vote used a unique ballot bell system in which each voter drops a marble into a drum for their preferred candidate. Our correspondent said that the marble struck a bell inside the drum to ensure multiple voting could not be detected, and added that bicycles had been banned from polling stations to prevent confusion with the ballot bells. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>