Presidential elections were held in

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

on 24 February 2019. Incumbent president

Macky Sall Macky Sall (, , ; born 11 December 1961) is a Senegalese politician who served as the fourth president of Senegal from 2012 to 2024. He previously served as the eighth Prime Minister of Senegal, prime minister from 2004 to 2007, under President ...

of the Alliance for the Republic was re-elected for a second term with 58% of the vote in the first round.

Electoral system

The

President of Senegal The president of Senegal () is the head of state of Senegal. In accordance with the 2001 Senegalese constitutional referendum, constitutional reform of 2001 and since a 2016 Senegalese constitutional referendum, referendum that took place on 20 ...

is elected using the

two-round system The two-round system (TRS or 2RS), sometimes called ballotage, top-two runoff, or two-round plurality, is a single-winner electoral system which aims to elect a member who has support of the majority of voters. The two-round system involves one ...

; a candidate must receive over 50% of the vote to be elected in the first round. If no candidate had crossed the threshold, a second round would have been held between the top two candidates. Prior to the elections, the electoral law was amended to introduce requirements for candidates to secure signatures from at least 0.8% of the registered electorate, and for at least 2,000 signatures from seven of the 14 regions. Voters were only allowed to give a signature to one candidate.

Candidates

Although 87 candidates registered intent to collect signatures, only around 20 applied to the Constitutional Council to participate in the election, with the requirement for signatures and the introduction of a 30 million

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th century ...

bond thought to have put many potential candidates off. Five candidates were approved to run in the elections; , ,

, Idrissa Seck and

Ousmane Sonko Ousmane Sonko (; born 15 July 1974) is a Senegalese politician and former tax official who is serving as the 16th prime minister of Senegal since 2024, and as the leader of PASTEF since the party's foundation in January 2014. Sonko was the PAS ...

. In January 2019, two opposition leaders Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade were barred from participating due to previous convictions for misuse of public funds.Senegal court bars 2 opposition leaders from presidential vote
Eyewitness News, 14 January 2019

Results

On 25 February 2019, Prime Minister

Mahammed Dionne Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne (22 September 1959 – 5 April 2024) was a Senegalese politician who served as the Prime Minister of Senegal from 2014 to 2019. He was the third prime minister appointed by President Macky Sall. Dionne served at th ...

said that Sall had been re-elected with "a minimum of 57%" of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff election. He also said Sall had won in 13 of the country's 14 regions.Incumbent Macky Sall wins Senegal presidential election: PM
Al Jazeera, 26 February 2019 On 5 March 2019, the Constitutional Council confirmed the election results.

References

{{Senegalese elections

Presidential

Presidential elections in Senegal