Diomaye Faye - Meet the 44-year-old taxman, ex-prisoner coasting to Senegal presidency

Senegal is likely to produce West Africa's youngest democratically elected president in the person of Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

Born in 1980, the 44-year-old has become the default opposition leader in an election that had 19 candidates on the ballot.

Faye became opposition leader after his boss, the widely-loved Ousmane Sonko was barred by the courts from the March 24 elections.

The vote is the beginning of the end of the two-term of outgoing President Macky Sall, who affirmed that his tenure will end on April 2 without fail.

Faye, like his boss Sonko, had been in jail and were only granted presidential amnesty weeks to the polls.

Here are key facts about the man who could be Senegal's next president

a. He was released from jail on March 16 along with Sonko.

b. Faye and Sonko are leaders of the Patriotes Africains du Sénégal pour le Travail, l'Ethique et la Fraternité (Pastef), a party dissolved in July 2023.

c. He had spent 335 days' pre-trial detention for "contempt of court" and "calling for insurrection."

d. He celebrates his 44th birthday today (March 25, 2024)

e. Five opponents have since congratulated him for victory in the poll

f. In 2014, at the age of 34, Faye, an alumnus of the Ecole Nationale de l'Administration (ENA), made his mark during the meetings that led to the creation of Pastef.

G. He would go on to become one of the ideologues and designers of Sonko's program for his presidential candidacy in 2019. It was a stroke of genius: In his first election, the Pastef leader garnered almost 16% of the vote and came third.

sara