Results confirm Faye's large win in Senegal presidential elections

Anti-establishment figure Bassirou Diomaye Faye has comfortably won the Senegalese presidential election with 54.28 percent of votes in the first round, official provisional results have shown.

Faye placed well ahead of the governing coalition's candidate, former prime minister Amadou Ba, who garnered 35.79 percent.

Aliou Mamadou Dia, who came third out of 19 candidates, won just 2.8 percent of the vote.

The turnout of 61.3 percent was less than in 2019, when outgoing President Macky Sall won a second term in the first-round.

RFI's correspondents in Dakar reported that Amady Diouf, president of the Votes Census Commission, said that all members agreed on the results.

Faye's opponents have recognised his victory. It now has to be validated by Senegal's top constitutional body, which could happen in a few days.

Big break

The announcement of the official provisional results clears the way for a handover of power between Sall and his successor in the coming days.

Faye's election is a first in many ways. It makes it the first time since independence from France in 1960 that an opponent has won in the first round in Senegal.

At 44, Faye is set to become the youngest president in the country's history. He was freed from prison 10 days before the election.

Faye said in his first speech that he wanted a "break" with the existing political system.

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End of a crisis

Sunday's election puts an end to three years of tension and deadly unrest, with Senegal plunged into a deeper political crisis in February, when Sall decided to delay the presidential poll.

Dozens have been killed and hundreds arrested since 2021, with the country's democratic credentials coming under scrutiny.

Faye himself was detained for months before his release in the middle of the election campaign.

International observers hailed the smooth running of Sunday's vote.

The African Union's observation mission commended the "political and democratic maturity of the Senegalese people (and) the generally peaceful political atmosphere of the presidential election".

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday congratulated Faye and "the Senegalese people, who have demonstrated that the right to vote – and have that vote counted – remains democracy's threshold liberty".

On Monday Faye pledged to govern "with humility, with transparency, and to fight corruption at all levels".

(with AFP)