Provisional results give Wade 58.5% of the votes

Provisional results of Senegal’s presidential polls confirm that opposition leader Abdoulaye Wade stormed to victory with 58.5 percent, or 968,526 of the ballots, against 41.5 percent for President Abdou Diouf, leader of the Parti socialiste. The results, released on Wednesday and printed in the official daily newspaper, ‘Le Soleil’, put the voter turnout at 1.67 million, or 60.77 percent of the electorate. This marks the first time in Senegal’s 40-year post-independence history that an opposition party has won power. Eight other parties rallied around Wade and his Parti democratique senegalais to rout his long-time foe. PS electoral spokesman Ababacar Sall said the party would not challenge the results. Under the electoral laws, if the results go unchallenged, the Constitutional Court must declare the final results three days after receiving the provisional figures from the Court of Appeal.