Coalition triumphs in Senegal poll

[iolsa]

Dakar - A coalition backing newly elected Senegalese President Macky Sall won a landslide victory with 119 seats in a July 1 legislative election, provisional results announced by the West African nation's election commission showed on Wednesday.  

Sall's Benno Bokk Yakaar coalition won a controlling majority of the total 150 seats, while the former ruling Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) won 12 seats, Demba Kandji, president of the national electoral commission said.  

A breakaway faction of PDS won four seats while other smaller political parties shared the remaining 15 seats, Kandji said.  

Voter turnout was 36.67 percent of the more than five million registered voters.    

The victory will enable Sall, 50, who won a presidential election against veteran leader Abdoulaye Wade in March, push promised economic reforms to boost employment and cut the cost of living for the poor. - Reuters



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