Radical change candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye pulls off stunning election win after main rival Amadou Ba concedes defeat
Senegal’s anti-establishment candidate looks almost certain to become president after a stunning election victory that is likely to steer the west African country in a radical new direction.
A little over a week after his release from prison, Bassirou Diomaye Faye is almost certain to be declared the country’s next president after his main rival unexpectedly called him on Monday to concede defeat.
Most analysts had expected the election to go to a tightly contested second round runoff between Faye and Amadou Ba, who represented the ruling administration.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A little over a week after his release from prison, Bassirou Diomaye Faye is almost certain to be declared the country’s next president after his main rival unexpectedly called him on Monday to concede defeat.
It is also a damning rejection of Macky Sall, the incumbent president who has been in power for 12 years yet leaves office with his country facing widespread poverty and almost a third of Senegal’s youth unemployed.
However by mid-afternoon, and with a lengthening number of other candidates congratulating Faye as the winner, Ba abruptly conceded defeat – despite the full provisional results of the vote not expected until Friday.
In a statement, Ba said: “In light of presidential election result trends and while we await the official proclamation, I congratulate … Faye for his victory in the first round.”
Promising a presidential programme of leftwing pan-Africanism, Faye wants Senegal to cease using the CFA franc – the west African single currency pegged to the euro with the financial backing of the French Treasury – which critics deride as a relic of colonialism.
The two former tax inspectors have campaigned together under the slogan “Diomaye is Sonko”, promising to fight corruption, spread wealth more equally and prioritise national economic interests.
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