Senegal: presidential election results by candidate 2024

Almost 4.5 million Senegalese voters went to the ballot box in the presidential election on March 24. 2024. Ultimately, it was Bassirou Diomaye Faye who took victory, with over 2.4 million votes (a 54 percent share), although this was after a controversial buildup to what could be a pivotal election in Senegal's history.

Background

One year before the election, the leading opposition candidate, Ousmane Sonko, was arrested, disqualified from running, and his party, PASTEF, was ordered to dissolve. Following Sonko's arrest, there were protests across the country (as there had been following a previous arrest in 2019), where 23 people were killed and hundreds were arrested. Thereafter, PASTEF's general secretary, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, was also imprisoned, but he was not formally charged with a crime and therefore was eligible to run as the party's candidate (with Sonko's backing). The election was initially to be held in February but the incumbent president, Mackey Sall, then postponed the election until December over questions regarding the eligibility of PASTEF's candidates (Sall himself was ineligible to run after serving two terms). This postponement was met by further protests across the country before the supreme court declared this move unconstitutional. Due to the backlash, Sall rescheduled the elections for March, and both Sonko and Faye were released less than two weeks before the election. In the campaign, Faye ran on a platform of creating jobs, tackling corruption, and bringing stronger financial security. The other leading candidate, Amadou Ba, was backed by Sall and vowed to continue many of his policies, and keep Senegal open to foreign investment.

The election

In contrast to the buildup, the election itself went relatively smoothly, according to both domestic and international observers. Although results were not confirmed until March 29, both Ba and Sall acknowledged Faye's victory within two days of the election. In recent decades, Senegal has been one of the most stable democracies in the region, however, given the recent string of coups across the continent since 2020, there were questions over the strength of democracy in Senegal, especially in light of the tumultuous year preceding this election. Voters took to the streets in celebration on the night of the election, with many quoted as not just celebrating their candidate's victory, but also the success of the election, which was widely viewed as a victory for Senegalese democracy. Faye assumed office on April 2, 2024, with Sonko named as his Prime Minister.