In Senegal, the Constitutional Council declared Basirou Dimay Faye president-elect

Published on: 03/29/2024 – 9:29 pmModified: 03/29/2024 – 22:15

3 minutes

It’s now official: Senegalese rival Basirou Dimaye Faye has been elected president of Senegal. With 54.28% of the votes in the first round of voting on March 24, according to the final results announced by the Constitutional Council on Friday, he is ahead of Mackie Sale’s runner-up, Amadou Ba (35.79%).

“Mr Basirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye has been elected President of the Republic of Senegal”, indicates the council’s ruling confirming the provisional figures announced on Wednesday by the courts.

The council “received no contest” from 19 candidates, the third of whom, Aliou Mamadou Diya, received 2.8% of the vote.

Basirou Diomei Faye will be sworn in late Tuesday morning in the new town of Diamniadio, the presidency said. After the transfer of power with his predecessor, Macky Sall, is held in the presidential palace in Dakar.

Also readIn Senegal, President Macky Sall meets Basirou Diomey Faye and Ousmane Sonko

First meeting with Emmanuel Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “desire to continue and intensify the partnership between Senegal and France” to the president-elect on Friday, during his first telephone interview since Sunday’s election.

This is the first time since Senegal’s independence in 1960 that an opponent has won in the first round.

Also readSenegal: How to explain Basirou Diomay Faye’s victory in the first round?

The participation was 61.30%. This is less than in 2019, when outgoing President Mackie Sale won a second term, also in the first round, but more than in 2012.

A serious political crisis caused by the last-minute postponement of the presidential election in February and the tightening of the calendar with the setting of a new date of March 24 have cast doubt on the possibility of a new president being inaugurated before the end of his official term. Presidential Order of the Year, 2 April.

The transfer will take place within the required time frame, which is significant in a country that prides itself on its democratic practices.

44-year-old Basirou Diomei Faye, who has never held national elective office before, will become the fifth and youngest president of the West African country of 18 million people. His opponents recognized his victory.

His election was preceded by three years of tension and unrest. Senegal, known as one of the most stable countries in West Africa, experienced a new crisis in February when President Sal ordered the postponement of elections.

Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds arrested since 2021, and Senegal’s democratic credentials have been scrutinized in a new light.

In mid-March, in the middle of the election campaign, Basirou Diomay Faye was detained for months before his release.

A man of “break”.

After weeks of confusion, Senegalese went to the polls on Sunday. International observers praised the smooth running of the operation.

Basirou Diomaye Faye presents himself as a man of “disintegration”, the restoration of national “sovereignty” sold abroad according to him, and “left Pan-Africanism”.

See also thisSenegal’s President Basirou Diomay Faye: Towards a Real Breakdown?

He is committed to “governing with humility, with transparency” to fight corruption at all levels, he declared on Monday March 25 during his first public appearance since the election.

The new president has stated “national reconciliation”, “rehabilitation” of institutions and “significant reduction in the cost of living” as his “priority projects”.

But he also worked to reassure foreign partners who followed the election closely.

Senegal “will remain a friendly country and a safe and reliable ally of any partner who engages with us in virtuous, respectful and mutually productive cooperation,” he said.

with AFP