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Senegal Ruling Party Wins Large Parliamentary Majority


An electoral worker opens a ballot box following the closure of polling stations at the end of Senegal's general election, on July 30, 2017 in Dakar.
An electoral worker opens a ballot box following the closure of polling stations at the end of Senegal's general election, on July 30, 2017 in Dakar.

Senegal's ruling party has won a large parliamentary majority, according to official provisional results, following an election last Sunday that opposition leaders say was tainted by fraud.

President Macky Sall's ruling coalition took 125 seats in the 165-seat National Assembly after winning nearly 50 percent of the vote, according to the results announced on national television late on Friday.

The coalition of 91-year-old former president Abdoulaye Wade, whom Sall defeated in a 2012 presidential election that cemented Senegal's reputation as one of West Africa's most stable democracies, won 19 seats. A coalition led by jailed Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall won seven seats.

Last Sunday's vote was marred by delays in issuing biometric identity cards that prevented hundreds of voters from casting their ballots, part of what opposition leaders said was an intensifying clampdown on political opposition.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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