A Dakar Court of Appeal judge has declared opposition candidate and anti-establishment leader Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s victory in Sunday’s presidential election, with more than 54% of the vote.
The court released provisional presidential election results on Wednesday based on a polling station vote total of 100%.
Faye, won the presidential election by 54.28 percent over ruling coalition candidate Amadou Ba, who finished second with 35.79 percent.
The presidential election was held on Sunday after being postponed by outgoing President Macky Sall, causing brutal riots and instability throughout the country.
The turnout in presidential elections was 61.30 percent, with more than 4 million ballots cast out of almost 7 million registered voters in the 18 million-person country, with 19 candidates contending for the prestigious job.
According to Senegalese officials, the Constitutional Council will declare the official and definitive presidential election results in the coming days. Following that, President-elect Faye would be sworn in to succeed outgoing President Sall, whose term would expire on April 2.
Before the provisional results were revealed, the first trends indicated that Faye would win the first round.
The vast majority of Senegal’s political class reacted positively to his triumph. “This augurs a great maturity of the electoral system, of the elite of the Senegalese people,” stated the African Union’s (AU) electoral observation team in a report released on Wednesday.
Before his election, President-elect Faye promised to restore national “sovereignty” and undertake a “pan-Africanism” program, replacing the CFA Franc, a colonial-era currency.
Pan-Africanist economists and African politicians argue that the currency enables France to continue its domination over African countries.
Several West African countries, including Senegal, plan to introduce the ECO or African Common Currency.
