Senegal: Landslide for party of President Macky Sall

Recently elected Senegal President Macky Sall. PHOTO/Pan African News Wire

The party of recently elected Senegal President Macky Sall secured 119 seats in the country’s 150-seat parliament in last Sunday’s election, according to provisional results.

Judge Demba Kandji, president of the national vote counting commission, said that other parties secured only 31 seats. Just 12 deputies are from the party of recently ousted President Abdoulaye Wade, who governed Senegal for the past 12 years.

Participation in Sunday’s poll was low at 36.7 percent. The resounding victory for Sall’s party is further evidence of the extent of dissatisfaction in Senegal with the previous administration.

The fact that the 86-year-old Wade accepted defeat and stepped down has been held up as proof of Senegal’s democratic maturity.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.