AFRICA/SENEGAL - Macky Sall re-elected President in the first round, but the opposition disputes the regularity of the scrutiny

Friday, 1 March 2019

Dakar (Agenzia Fides) - Senegal's electoral commission says that President Macky Sall has won a second term in office with more than 58 percent of the vote.
The other candidates are former Prime Minister Idrissa Seck, who obtained 20.50%, Ousmane Sonko (15.67%), the Dean of the University of Sahel, El Hadj Issa Sall (4.07%) and former minister Madické Niang (1.48%). 66.24% of the voters voted.
The four defeated candidates, however, immediately contested the victory of Sall. "We firmly and unreservedly reject this result", says a joint text signed by Ousmane Sonko, Madické Niang, Issa Sall and Idrissa Seck.
The electoral campaign was characterized by tensions and controversy for the approval in April 2018 of the law of "sponsorship" which provides that each candidate submits his candidacy accompanied by the signatures of at least 65,000 people registered in the lists of voters (equal to 1 % of the electoral body). The law was approved by Parliament despite the criticism of the opposition, which states that the provision was introduced to facilitate the re-election of Macky Sall already in the first round. The tensions had increased after the candidacy of Karim Wade, son of former President Abdoulaye Wade, and of Khalifa Sall, the former mayor of Dakar, had been rejected. Both were at the center of judicial issues.
The Bishops had invited the population to calm while the Joint Electoral Observation Mission of the Episcopal Commission "Justice and Peace" and the scouts of Senegal, deployed a thousand observers and scrutinizers throughout Senegal to contribute to the certification of the regularity of the vote". (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 1/3/2019)


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