Official results are expected to be announced by the Dakar appeals court on Friday.
Senegal’s former Prime Minister Amadou Ba has congratulated rival opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye for winning the presidential election.
Results trickling in since polls closed on Sunday evening in the first round of a delayed presidential election rapidly suggested Faye, 44, may have clinched an outright majority. The trends announced on local media sparked street celebrations by his supporters in the capital Dakar.
Ruling coalition candidate Ba, 62, initially called these celebrations premature and said a run-off vote would be needed to determine the winner.
But he then called Faye on Monday to offer his congratulations, a government spokesman told journalists.
“In light of presidential election result trends and while we await the official proclamation, I congratulate… Faye for his victory in the first round,” Ba said in a statement.
Several opposition contenders had also conceded defeat to Faye during the night, including Anta Babacar Ngom, the only woman running.
Millions in Senegal took part in Sunday’s vote to elect the country’s fifth president.
It followed three years of unprecedented political turbulence that sparked violent antigovernment protests and buoyed support for the opposition.
Ba was the candidate backed by outgoing President Macky Sall, who is stepping down amid a drop in popularity after two terms in office marred by economic hardship and violent anti-government protests.
Faye, was thrust into the centre of Senegalese politics more than a week after he was released from prison along with his firebrand mentor Ousmane Sonko, who was disqualified from standing in the election because of a defamation conviction.
He has not publicly spoken since he cast his vote. He owes much of his success to the backing of firebrand opposition leader Sonko.
Faye and Sonko, the two former tax inspectors have campaigned together under the slogan “Diomaye is Sonko”, promising to fight corruption and prioritise national economic interests.
They are particularly popular among young voters in a country where more than 60% of people are under 25 and struggle to find jobs.
A peaceful transition of power in Senegal would mark a boost for democracy in West Africa, where there have been eight military coups since 2020.
Some of the juntas that seized power have cut ties with traditional power-brokers in the region such as France and the United States, and turned instead to Russia for help in their fight against a jihadist insurgency spreading through countries that neighbour Senegal.
Many hope the vote will bring stability and an economic boost to Senegal after three years of unprecedented political turbulence in one of West Africa’s only stable democracies, which is set to start producing oil and gas this year.
“I am happy to see there is a wind of change,” Tall, who joined revellers during the night as supporters waved Senegalese flags, lit flares and blasted vuvuzelas, told Reuters.
“It is wonderful because democracy has won. Many thought it would not happen,” he said, only wishing to give his first name.
Earlier, Alioune Tine, founder of the think-tank Afrikajom Center and Amnesty International’s former regional director for West and Central Africa, also said a victory for Faye is a good sign for democracy in Senegal.
“Democracy was sick with political violence, with state violence, with death,” Tine told Al Jazeera, referring to the political violence of the last few years. He added that Sonko being unable to contest elections further showed that democracy was sick.
Official results are expected to be announced by the Dakar appeals court on Friday.
The electoral commission has not yet communicated on the tallies counted so far out of 15,633 voting stations.
