The outgoing president Sall, who triggered violent protests earlier this year when he unsuccessfully tried to postpone the election until the end of the year, described the outcome of the vote as a victory for Senegal. His former prime minister and the loser in the race, Amadou Ba, wished Faye success in a statement shared by his campaign team.The election on Sunday followed months of unrest ignited by Faye and Sonko’s arrest last year, and concerns that the president would seek a third term in office despite constitutional term limits. The violence shook Senegal’s reputation as a stable democracy in a region that has seen a wave of coups. Rights groups said dozens were killed in the protests, while some 1,000 people were jailed.The expected winner of the election, Faye is a former tax collector and was little known until Sonko named him as his heir.His roots lie in a small town in central Senegal. He is a practicing Muslim. Ahead of Sunday’s election, Faye published a declaration of his assets, and called on other candidates to do the same. It lists a home in Dakar, and land outside the capital and in his hometown. His bank accounts hold roughly $6,600.”I would even say that he is more honest than me. I place the project in his hands,” Sonko told supporters at a joint news conference in March of last year. Weeks later, Faye was arrested and jailed on various charges, including defamation.Alioune Tine, founder of Afrikajom Center, a Senegalese think tank, said the outcome of the vote proved Senegal would survive after a difficult year that had undermined the population’s faith in democracy.”From prison to the presidential palace,” said Tine. “The only country in Africa capable of withstanding a disease of its democracy that has shaken all its institutions, profoundly shaken its society, only to recover from it.”International analysts said a change in leadership in Senegal would come as a relief after months of violence, but raised new questions about the foreign policy of the new government at a time when the coastal nation is becoming an oil and gas producer.On Monday night, Faye outlined some early foreign policy priorities, which included reforming the troubled West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS.”A win by the opposition also means major changes ahead in domestic and foreign policies,” said Rida Lyammouri of the Policy Center for the New South, a Morocco-based think tank, adding that a promise to move away from former colonial power France could define the foreign policy of the country’s new government.
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