APA-Banjul (The Gambia) Banjul hopes to strengthen bilateral relations with Dakar when Senegal’s President-elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye assumes office in April.
President Adama Barrow has sent a congratulatory message to Mr. Bassirou Diomaye Faye of the opposition PASTEF movement in Senegal over his election victory.
Faye, 44 had established an unassailable lead over his rivals who have since conceded including Amadou Ba, the candidate of the ruling Benno Bokk Yakarr coalition.
Mr. Barrow commended the Senegalese people ”for the peaceful conduct of the presidential election… I am optimistic that the cordial relationship between The Gambia and Senegal will be further strengthened and enhanced under the leadership of President-Elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye”.
Anglophone Gambia is Senegal’s only immediate neighbour, hemmed in on all sides by her French-speaking neighbour except for a short Atlantic coastline.
Some 15 thousand Senegalese in The Gambia trooped out to vote in 15 polling stations in Banjul the capital and other nearby towns as Senegal went to the polls on Sunday to choose a successor to outgoing President Macky who had ruled Africa’s westernmost country since 2012.
Mr. Sall had cultivated special ties with Mr. Barrow, a relationship which began in December 2016 when Senegal played an instrumental role in his installation as president after defeated incumbent Yahya Jammeh had refused to accept the poll results and handover power.
Sall with other regional leaders helped stave off a post-electoral crisis in The Gambia where an Ecowas intervention force has been in place since then.
WN/as/APA