Majority of Senegalese voters favor constitutional reforms

The "YES' camp won in 43 out of Senegal's 45 departments during Sunday's referendum on constitutional reforms, a source from the ruling party said Monday.

"The victory is clear because 43 out of 45 departments voted YES," the camp's spokesman El Hadj Momar Samb said during a press conference in Dakar.

Samb said the "YES" camp got a clear victory but lost Mbacke and Kebe departments in the central-north regions.

"This victory is well deserved because it came in a referendum context that was faced with a campaign of misinformation and intoxication by political opponents whose only objective was to bring down the current regime," Samb explained.

However, supporters of the "YES" camp did not highlight the low turnout during the referendum which was estimated to be 40 percent.

Some 5.5 million Senegalese voters went to the ballot on Sunday to either validate or reject a constitutional reform proposed by President Macky Sall.

The reforms mainly sought to reduce the presidential term mandate from seven to five years. Other reforms included limiting presidential terms to two, increasing powers of parliament, increasing the people's power over their land, election of a member of parliament for Senegalese nationals in the diaspora as well as creation of a position of official opposition leader. Endit