Left-wing pan-Africanist, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, on Tuesday became Senegal’s youngest president, pledging systemic change after years of deadly turmoil and announcing his mentor, opposition figure Ousmane Sonko, as prime minister.
Faye, 44, has never previously held an elected office. He swept to a first-round victory on a promise of radical reform just 10 days after being released from prison.
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He took the presidential oath in front of hundreds of officials and several African heads of state at an exhibition centre in the new town of Diamniadio, near Dakar.
He then returned to the capital, with his motorcade greeted by hundreds of jubilant residents who lined the roads leading to the presidential palace.
His predecessor, Macky Sall, symbolically handed Faye the key to the presidential headquarters before leaving the palace.
“Before God and the Senegalese nation, I swear to faithfully fulfil the office of President of the Republic of Senegal,” Faye had said earlier in the day.
Just hours later, his new administration appointed firebrand opposition leader Sonko prime minister.
“Mr Ousmane Sonko is named prime minister,” said Oumar Samba Ba, the general secretary of the presidency, as he read out a decree on the public television station RTS.
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Sonko, 49, was at the centre of a two-year stand-off with the state that triggered bouts of deadly unrest. He was disqualified from running in the most recent race and picked Faye as his replacement on the presidential ballot.
The former tax inspector is Senegal’s fifth president since independence from France in 1960 and the first to openly admit to a polygamous marriage.
“I am aware that the results of the ballot box express a profound desire for systemic change,” Faye said in a brief speech after taking the presidential oath.
“Under my leadership, Senegal will be a country of hope, a peaceful country with an independent judiciary and a strengthened democracy,” he added.
Faye and Sonko were among a group of opposition politicians freed from prison 10 days before the March 24 presidential ballot under an amnesty announced by former president Macky Sall, who had tried to delay the vote.
“I have painful memories of the martyrs of Senegalese democracy, the amputees, the wounded and the former prisoners,” Faye said Tuesday, referring to the past three years of political unrest that left dozens dead and hundreds arrested.
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“I will always bear in mind the heavy sacrifices made in order never to disappoint you,” he added.
Faye also reiterated to foreign partners “Senegal’s openness to trade that respects our sovereignty and meets the aspirations of our people, in a mutually beneficial partnership”.
Commonly known as Diomaye, or “the honourable one”, his promise of radical change won the election with 54.3 percent of the vote.
Reconciliation, sovereignty