Senegal votes for new president
DAKAR: Senegalese voters headed to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president from a group of candidates.
According to the German news agency, incumbent President Macky Sall has a good chance of winning a second term after two prominent opposition figures, the former mayor of Dakar and Karim Wade, former minister and the son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, were barred from contesting the election.
Missions from the European Union (EU), the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will monitor the elections.
Sall’s competitors are former prime minister Idrissa Seck, Issa Sall of the Unity and Assembly Party (PUR), former Justice and Foreign Minister Madicke Niang and tax inspector-turned parliamentarian Ousman Sonko.
Some 15,000 polling stations opened around the country at 8am and were to close at 6pm.
Sall, who represents the Alliance for the Republic party, has mostly campaigned on the promise to implement a second phase of his socio-economic development program.
He has been in power since 2012 and his initiatives include investment in infrastructure and a social grant system for the West African nation’s poorest families.
Sall’s main rival is Idrissa Seck, 59, a former prime minister and candidate of the Rewmi party.
The five-candidate race leaves voters with a limited choice compared to 2012 when 14 candidates vied for the top post, and 2007 when 15 battled it out for the presidency.
Some 6.7 million people from Senegal’s population of 16 million are registered to vote.
To win the election outright, a candidate must get more than 50 per cent of the votes cast.
If no one wins more than half the ballots on Sunday, a second vote is provisionally scheduled for March 24. The exact timing will be determined by how long it takes to officially proclaim the first-round results, and whether there is a challenge.
A new system approved by parliament last year, despite opposition party challenges, requires candidates to demonstrate they have the support of a minimum number of citizens and regions.
Senegal is one of Africa’s most stable countries, and has experienced strong growth while largely escaping the extremist attacks that have destabilised its neighbours, such as Mali.