After a turbulent run-up to the election, the process itself was a peaceful one, with leading opposition figure Bassirou Diomaye Faye confirmed as the new president-elect of Senegal with more than 50% of the vote.
Senegal’s leading opposition figure Bassirou Diomaye Faye was confirmed as the President-elect by the country’s top court on Friday.
Senegal’s Constitutional Council announced official results that gave Faye, with 54.28% of the vote in the first round of presidential elections held last week, a clear lead.
Former Senegalese Prime Minister Amadou Ba came in second, with 35.79% of the vote, according to the Council. The Council said other candidates had also raised no objection to the outcome.
A tense political climate in the run-up to election
Riots broke out last year after Senegal’s foremost opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, was sentenced to jail.
Outgoing President Macky Sall had been accused of clinging on to power as well as cracking down on opposition.
The president of the western African nation also unsuccessfully tried to postpone the vote — which was originally due February 25 — until the end of the year. That decision sparked violentprotests.
Amadou Ba, who conceded to Faye last week, was the government-backed candidate. Sall, whose term ends on April 2, also declared Faye the winner of the election last week after a provisional tally showed him in the clear lead.
A candidate requires 50% of the vote in the first round to win the election. Since Faye has a clear majority, there will be no second round.
Faye will be the youngest president of Senegal
Faye, who is 44 years old and on course to be the youngest president of Senegal, was in jail just a few days before the vote.
He was released along with Sonko, who was disqualified from running for presidency over a defamation conviction he said was politically motivated.
Senegal, a country of 17 million people, is seen as a model of stability in West Africa, a region that has been plagued by recurring coups in recent years.
rm/ab (Reuters, AFP)
