Macky Sall has been re-elected for a second term as President of Senegal with a 58 percent majority in the first round of elections.
Announced yesterday, the provisional results from the National Vote Counting Commission hands President Sall a second term without a run-off vote.
Opposition candidate Idrissa Seck scored 20.5 percent, with Ousmane Sonko scoring 15.67 percent, Issa Sall scoring 4.07 percent and Madické Niang scoring 1.48 percent. More than 66 percent of 6.7 million registered voters took part in the election.
The opposition has 72 hours to appeal the result; if there is no appeal, the Constitutional Court will have five days to confirm and finalize the result.
Opposition candidates claim their tallies indicate the need for a second round of voting, rejecting reports of an outright victory for Sall. Further, Sall was accused of preventing potential rivals from running, with two well-known opposition figures barred from taking place due to corruption convictions.
Sall has pushed forward a number of initiatives during his presidency, including increasing Senegal’s economic growth to over 6 percent.
