Exit polls tonight show Opposition candidate Macky Sall has won the presidential Elections in a run-off. Abdoulaye Wade has conceded defeat.
Senegalese state television has reported that President Abdoulaye Wade conceded defeat in a phone call to his main electoral rival Macky Sall.
‘Former president’ Wade “phoned Macky Sall at 21:30GMT congratulating him after the first results showed him to be the winner of a presidential run-off” vote.
Mr. Sall had promised that, if elected, he will shorten the presidential term to five years from the current seven, and enforce a two-term limit. He has also promised to bring in measures to reduce the price of basic foodstuffs.
Polling stations closed after a largely peaceful electoral exercise on Sunday that attracted more than five million voters, with local reports suggesting a high turnout.
Wade was miserably and roundly beaten in his home polling station in the suburb of Point-E.
Wade once said “how can you organise an election and lose it?”
Who is Mr. Macky Sall?
He is 50 years old, a geologist who served as President Abdoulaye Wade’s prime minister between 2004 and 2007 and before that held the interior and mines portfolios. He held several ministry portfolios before becoming prime minister.
He also oversaw the successful re-election of Mr Wade five years ago, heading his electoral campaign – and went on to become president of the National Assembly.
He has twice served as mayor of his home town of Fatick, 120km (75 miles) south of the capital.
Sall and Ade fell out over the handling of public spending by Karim Wade, the ‘former president’s’ unpopular son, whom many believed wass trying to succeed his father.
Democracy in Senegal
Senegal, a former French colony, is seen as a stable democracy with an unbroken series of elections since independence in 1960.
It remains the only West African country where the army has never seized power.
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