Former prime minister concedes to Senegal opposition

Senegal’s ruling coalition candidate, Amadou Ba, has called the opposition’s Bassir­ou Diomaye Faye to concede victo­ry in Sunday’s presidential election, a government official said.

Unofficial results showed that Mr Faye had a strong lead over Mr Ba.

Mr Faye had been in prison 10 days before the vote and cam­paigned on the promise of radical change.

Official results are expected in the coming days from the election which was originally due last month.

The vote followed months of political turmoil in one of Africa’s most stable democracies, after outgoing President, Macky Sall, tried to postpone the election until December.

Several of the other 15 candi­dates had already conceded.

President Sall has also congratu­lated Mr Faye and said that it was a win for the people of Senegal.

Mr Faye is a senior member of the Pastef party, led by Ousmane Sonko, the popular figure who many thought would succeed Mr Sall.

But Mr Sonko was disqualified from the election because of a defamation conviction, which he said was politically motivated. Mr Sonko backed Mr Faye’s bid for the presidency.

The first set of results announced on television overnight, showing that Mr Faye had won a majority of the votes counted up to that point, triggered street celebrations in the capital, Dakar.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. —BBC

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