Senegal’s opposition candidate, who received the tightly contested presidential race, secured over 54% of the votes, in keeping with preliminary outcomes launched Wednesday.
The presidential election Sunday marked a shocking victory for 44-year-old Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who was free of jail lower than two weeks in the past and is now resulting from be the youngest chief of the West African nation.
The government-backed candidate, former Prime Minister Amadou Ba, conceded to Faye on Monday. President Macky Sall, who had backed Ba, additionally declared Faye the winner.
At a news convention in Dakar, the court docket of appeals introduced Wednesday that Faye received 54.28% of the vote. Ba garnered 35.47% of the votes solid.
The outcomes are preliminary – after all of the votes have been counted – however are anticipated to be confirmed Friday.
Faye’s launch from jail adopted a political amnesty granted simply in time for the balloting. He was little recognized till widespread opposition chief Ousmane Sonko, who was barred from working resulting from a previous conviction, selected Faye to run in his place.
In his first speech as president-elect, Faye promised to battle corruption and reform the economic system.
The election got here after months of unrest. Both Faye and Sonko have been arrested final yr, and there have been issues that the president would search an unconstitutional third time period.
President Sall sought to delay the election till December however that transfer was blocked by the nation’s constitutional court docket and the federal government was pressured to permit the election to go ahead this month.
The sole lady within the race, Anta Babacar Ngom, gained lower than 1% of the votes. No different candidate among the many 19 listed on the poll bought greater than 3%, reflecting how voters have been evenly divided between the 2 front-runners, Ba and Faye.
Source: www.dailysabah.com