Senegal’s Sall Heads for Outright Win in Partial Vote Results

DAKAR (Capital Markets in Africa) – Senegalese President Macky Sall is leading Sunday’s election with the necessary majority for an outright win, according to unofficial results from most of the country’s 45 departments.

Sall secured 57 percent of the 3.8 million votes counted in 39 departments that were compiled by a group of citizen observers known as Senegal Vote and tallied by Bloomberg. The results from 32 departments that were reported by state-run Agence de Presse Senegalaise show Sall leading with 61 percent of the vote. Senegal Vote reported the same results for the departments tallied by APS.

Sall’s camp already claimed an outright win while his opponents said the vote will require a second round, which could be closely contested if the opposition unites behind a single candidate. Unlike most of its neighbors in West Africa, Senegal has never suffered a coup.

The two main opposition candidates, ex-prime minister Idrissa Seck and Ousmane Sonko, a former tax inspector, won 22 percent and 15 percent of the vote respectively, according to Senegal Vote data.

Sall, 57, was seen as a shoo-in for a second term after overseeing seven years of rapid economic growth and the discovery of massive oil and gas reserves off the coast of the nation of 15 million people.

The National Vote Counting Commission is compiling official departmental tallies and is expected to announce the final outcome by Friday.

Source: Bloomberg Business News