|
News
Date:24 Feb 2019
Voting ends in Peaceful Senegal presidential election
Eligible voters in Senegal on Sunday participated in the first round of a presidential election that incumbent President Macky Sall was tipped to win after his main challengers were banned from running over corruption charges. The voting was largely incident-free.
Official results are expected on Friday with a run-off for the top two on March 24 if no one secures a majority.
Prime Minister Mahammed Dionne, a Sall ally and appointee, said early results showed Sall had won 13 out of 14 regions, securing 57 percent of the vote. "We must congratulate the president for his re-election in the first round," Dionne told journalists.
But opposition candidates Ousmane Sonkoa, a former tax inspector popular with youth, and Idrissa Seck, a third-time contender and former prime minister, “came together in a joint conference to accuse Macky Sall of trying to steal this election from the Senegalese people”, Massih said.
The West African nation has long been viewed as the region’s most stable democracy, with peaceful transitions of power since independence in 1960.
AEP
|
