Senegal election: Pastef claims large victory in legislative polls

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AFP A crowd of people in an electoral campaign in Senegalese capital Dakar raising their hands and holding scarfs with the country's flag and with the words 'Senegal'

1The Senegalese government has claimed victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections with most of the votes already counted.

2It said the ruling party, Pastef, had won with a "large majority".

3A victory for Pastef would give President Bassirou Diomaye Faye a strong mandate to implement the radical agenda of economic and social reform on which he was elected in March.

4Former President Macky Sall, Prime Minister Amadou Ba and Dakar's mayor Barthelemy Dias, who were heading different opposition coalitions, have all accepted defeat.

5Official results are expected later on Monday.

6The vote was conducted peacefully across the country on Sunday, although there were sporadic clashes between supporters of different parties in the run-up to the elections.

7"We are proud of the Senegalese people and we would like to thank them for the large victory that it has given to Pastef," government spokesman Amadou Moustapha Ndieck Sarre told the BBC.

8Pastef has not said how many seats it has won. 9It needs 83 for a majority in the 165-seat National Assembly.

10Faye and his Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko had struggled to get their reforms passed in recent months in the opposition-dominated parliament.

11Faye appointed Sonko, his political mentor who was barred from running for the presidency, as his prime minister soon after he became president.

12The pair campaigned on a promise of radical change - with an Afrocentric and nationalist agenda, promising to reset Senegal’s relationship with France, the country’s former colonial power.

13President Faye, Africa's youngest elected leader aged 44, promised economic reform, social justice and a focus on anti-corruption which resonated with many young people.

14The new government is likely to still face significant challenges in a country wracked by high levels of unemployment and shaky public finances.

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from BBC