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Senegal

Official results show sweeping win for Sall in Senegal election

Official results from Senegal's election show Macky Sall won with 65.8 per cent, a crushing victory over outgoing president Abdoulaye Wade who trailed with 34.2 per cent. 

Reuters/Joe Penney
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Voter turnout stood at 55 per cent in an election which saw the beaten incumbent accept defeat just hours after polls closed, winning him praise from around the world.

Sall, the 50-year-old former prime minister, will assume office after his inauguration on 3 April leaving him a few days to form a new government which is expected to include members of the opposition who lent him crucial support during the election.

Graphic RFI

He will then preside over independence celebrations on 4 April in his first role as president.

Sall's political party is the Republican Alliance but he was elected as part of a broad coalition called Benno Bokk Yakkar, meaning 'United with the same Hope' in the Wolof language.

It was not clear when the 85-year-old Wade would vacate his offices and the presidential palace after 12 years in power.

The west African nation had received kudos from the continent and the world for a peaceful handover of power following tumultuous elections in which Wade had sought to rule into his 90s, seeking a third term which sparked deadly riots.

 

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