République du Sénégal

Note: On March 25, 2012, opposition leader Macky Sall defeated incumbent president Abdoulaye Wade in a runoff election. Sall captured 65% of the vote compared with the incumbent’s 35%. President Wade had ruled Senegal for 12 years, and once he had completed the constitutional limit of two terms, he appealed to Senegal’s judiciary to be allowed to run for a third term. The Constitutional Court granted the 85-year-old president permission to run, but the decision was met with massive riots in the capital, Dakar. The first round of voting saw Wade receive 35%, followed by Sall with 27%. Sall soon received the backing of all the opposition leaders, giving him the political capital to wage an aggressive campaign against the incumbent. ...