Jammeh founded the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction as his political party. He was elected as president in September 1996. Foreign observers did not deem these elections free and fair. He was re-elected on 18 October 2001 with about 53% of the vote; this election was generally deemed free and fair by observers, despite some very serious shortcomings ranging from overt government intimidation of voters to technical innovations (such as raising the required deposit to stand for election by a factor of 25) to distort the process in favour of the incumbent regime.