Senegal’s former Prime Minister Amadou Ba has congratulated rival opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye for winning the presidential election, Al Jazeera is reporting.
Results trickling in since polls closed on Sunday evening in the first round of a delayed presidential election rapidly suggested Faye, 44, may have clinched an outright majority. The trends announced on local media sparked street celebrations by his supporters in the capital Dakar.
Ruling coalition candidate Ba, 62, initially called these celebrations premature and said a run-off vote would be needed to determine the winner. But he then called Faye on Monday to offer his congratulations, a government spokesman told journalists.
“In light of presidential election result trends and while we await the official proclamation, I congratulate… Faye for his victory in the first round,” Ba said in a statement. Several opposition contenders had also conceded defeat to Faye during the night, including Anta Babacar Ngom, the only woman running.
Millions in Senegal took part in Sunday’s vote to elect the country’s fifth president.
It followed three years of unprecedented political turbulence that sparked violent antigovernment protests and buoyed support for the opposition.
Ba was the candidate backed by outgoing President Macky Sall, who is stepping down amid a drop in popularity after two terms in office marred by economic hardship and violent anti-government protests. Faye, was thrust into the centre of Senegalese politics more than a week after he was released from prison along with his firebrand mentor Ousmane Sonko, who was disqualified from standing in the election because of a defamation conviction.
