Senegal court confirms opposition candidate Faye’s victory in presidential election

By Aurore Bonny

DOUALA, Cameroon (AA) – A Dakar Court of Appeal judge confirmed the victory of opposition candidate and anti-establishment leader Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who received more than 54% of votes cast in Sunday's presidential election.

The court on Wednesday announced provisional presidential election results based on a 100% polling station vote count.

Faye, 44, won the presidential election by 54.28% over ruling coalition candidate Amadou Ba, who came in second with 35.79% of the vote.

The presidential election was held on Sunday after being postponed by outgoing President Macky Sall, resulting in bloody clashes and unrest across the country.

The turnout in presidential elections was 61.30%, with more than 4 million votes cast out of over 7 million registered voters in the nation of 18 million people, with 19 candidates vying for the prestigious position.

According to Senegalese authorities, the Constitutional Council will announce the official and final results of the presidential election in the coming days.

Following that, President-elect Faye would be sworn in to take over the office as outgoing head of state Sall's mandate would expire on April 2.

Before the provisional results were announced, the first trends already pointed to Faye winning the first round.

His victory was widely welcomed by almost the entire Senegalese political class.

"This augurs a great maturity of the electoral system, of the elite of the Senegalese people," said the African Union's (AU) electoral observation mission in its report released on Wednesday.

It praised the "practice of democratic courtesy" in the country, which is often cited as an example of African democracy.

Before his election, President-elect Faye promised to restore national "sovereignty" and implement a "pan-Africanism" program, replacing the colonial-era currency, the CFA Franc.

Pan-Africanist economists and African politicians believe that this currency allows France to maintain its dominance over African countries.

Several West African countries, including Senegal, intend to launch the ECO, or African Common Currency.

With Faye's victory, the process may be accelerated.

However, in his victory speech, he promised that his country would remain an ally of any respectable foreign partner, without mentioning France's name.