Pastef party led by Ousmane Sonko wins historic election victory

Senegal’s ruling Pastef party has won a resounding victory in the legislative elections, taking130 of the 165 seats in parliament, according to provisional results.This victory gives the newly elected president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a clear mandate tocarry out the ambitious reforms promised during the campaign. These include fightingcorruption, reorganising the fishing industry and maximising the benefits from naturalresources.Senegal’s parliamentary elections on 17 November saw Ousmane Sonko’s Pastef party win alandslide victory, taking 130 of the 165 parliamentary seats, an unprecedented majority of78%. The party triumphed in 40 of the 46 departments and in 7 of the 8 overseasconstituencies, the most decisive victory since 1988.The victory gives Pastef significant power to push through structural reforms, withrepresentatives hailing the ‘massive support of the people’. Turnout was close to 50%.The opposition parties conceded defeat, with former president Macky Sall’s coalition winningjust 16 seats, down from 83. The coalition of former prime minister Amadou Ba took sevenseats, while the group of Dakar mayor Barthélémy Dias took three.The final results are expected within five days.