Row over victory claim as Senegal counts vote

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Senegalese leader Macky Sall's camp crowed victory on Monday, but the opposition dubbed the declaration premature and predicted a runoff vote.

Full official results from the vote are expected by Friday midnight at the latest. If none of the five candidates wins more than 50 percent, a second round is scheduled for late March.

Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne sparked controversy by declaring Sall's victory just hours after polling closed on Sunday.

He claimed Sall had won in 13 regions, according to early results, and only lost in one.

Senegalese Prime Minister Mahammed Buon Abdallah Dionne announces the re-election of President Macky Sal in Dakar, February 25, 2019. /VCG Photo

"The results allow us to say that we should congratulate President Macky Sall on his re-election," said Dionne, predicting his boss would receive "at least 57 percent" of the vote.

Sall's two main challengers, respectively former prime minister Idrissa Seck, who is making his third run for president and taxman-turned MP Ousmane Sonko, immediately challenged that claim.

"A second round is inevitable," Seck said.

"At the current state of the vote count, no candidate, I say no candidate, including myself, can claim to have won the presidential election," Sonko said.

Ballot papers for Senegal's presidential elections are pictured in Dakar, February 24, 2019. /VCG Photo

Senegal has a population of 16 million, of whom 6.7 million were registered to vote. A source in the interior ministry said that turnout appeared to be around 68 percent.

As a geologist by training, Sall took over as president in 2012 after beating his former mentor Abdoulaye Wade.

He campaigned for a second term championing his "Emerging Senegal" infrastructure project to boost economic growth.

Supporters of outgoing president Macky Sall celebrate in advance their candidate's victory at Senegal's presidential elections in Dakar, February 24, 2019. /VCG Photo

The opposition also accused private and international media of inflating the figures to favor Sall, an accusation denied by some news organizations.

Some voters like Fatou Kane Aidara, who lives in a Dakar suburb, said the figures claimed by the presidential camp were solid.

"The results are coming directly from the counting offices and the journalists are taking them after they have been published and transmitting them to radio and television stations," she complained.

Source(s): AFP