Senegal’s Constitutional Council, the country’s most important body when it comes to election results, confirmed the victory of opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye in the presidential elections on Friday, validating the provisional results announced last week. In the elections held on Sunday 24 March, Faye obtained more than 50 percent of the votes and his victory was also recognized by Amadou Ba, former prime minister and candidate of the party currently in government. The Council confirmed on Friday that Faye had taken 54.28 percent of the votes and will therefore become president without having to go through a second round.
The vote came after weeks of postponements and protests against the outgoing president Macky Sall, who could not run again due to having reached the limit of two consecutive terms provided for by the Senegalese Constitution. The electoral campaign took place amidst much tension and was shorter than expected by the electoral regulations. It began while Bassirou Diomaye Faye was still in prison: Faye had only been released from prison on the evening of March 14 thanks to a general amnesty decided by President Sall as a measure of “social pacification” to calm the protests.
At 44, Faye will become the youngest president of the country and the fifth in the history of Senegal after the country gained independence from France in 1960. He was one of Sall’s main political opponents, has left-leaning ideas and is presented as a politician “anti-system”.
– Read also: Who is Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the future president of Senegal