SENEGAL’S RULING PASTEF PARTY CLAIMS ‘LARGE VICTORY’ IN ELECTIONS

Mon 18 November 2024:

Senegal’s ruling PASTEF party, led by Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, secured a large lead in the Nov. 17 legislative elections, according to preliminary tallies.

With these results, released Sunday evening by polling stations in Senegal and abroad, PASTEF looks set to win a large majority of seats in the National Assembly.

Departmental vote-counting commissions are finalizing the counting process. The results will be sent to the National Electoral Commission to publish the official provisional results.

Opposition leaders have acknowledged PASTEF’s victory and congratulated its leader and candidates.

Former Prime Minister Amadou Ba, leader of the Jamm Ak Njarin coalition, and Dakar Mayor Barthelemy Dias, leader of the Samm Sa Kaddu coalition, both conceded defeat and hailed the ruling party’s success.

__________________________________________________________________________

https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22

__________________________________________________________________________

Voting took place peacefully across the West African country, where the governing Pastef party said 90 to 95 percent of ballots had already been counted.

“I pay homage to the Senegalese people for the large victory that it has given to Pastef,” government spokesman Amadou Moustapha Ndieck Sarre told TFM television.

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s Pastef party had emerged as the vote winner in most of the first polling stations giving their provisional results, according to media reports, beating the two main opposition parties.

Faye secured victory in March pledging economic transformation, social justice and a fight against corruption -– raising hopes among a largely youthful population facing high inflation and widespread unemployment.

But an opposition-led parliament hampered the government’s first months in power, prompting Faye to dissolve the chamber in September and call snap elections as soon as the constitution allowed him to do so.

“I hope that Pastef will win the elections to gain a majority so that they can better carry out their mandate,” said Pascal Goudiaby, a 56-year-old voter in Dakar.

“The priority is unemployment, young people are facing so much unemployment,” he said.

Faye appointed his firebrand mentor Ousmane Sonko as prime minister. Sonko’s own bid to run for president had been blocked following a three-year deadly standoff with the former authorities.

The pair promised a leftist pan-African agenda, vowing to diversify political and economic partnerships, review hydrocarbon and fishing contracts and re-establish Senegal’s sovereignty, which they claimed had been sold abroad.

Mademba Ndiaye, a 20-year-old student, was voting for the first time.

“It’s one of the only ways we can really have an impact on society, and I think that if we don’t vote, we couldn’t really complain about what happens in society afterwards,” he said.

Various actors reported that the turnout on Sunday was typically lower than in the presidential election.

Some 7,300,000 Senegalese went to the polls Sunday to elect 165 members of parliament for a five-year term. Forty-one political formations, parties, or coalitions compete in the legislative elections.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

__________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

WhatsApp CHANNEL
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22