President Abdoulaye Wade has named a new prime minister. Former incumbent, Hadjibou Soumaré, was replaced by Souleymane Ndéné Ndiaye. Jeune Afrique reports that Prime Minister Ndiaye was previously President Wade’s directeur de cabinet (chief of staff), the president’s spokesperson, and a minister.

Recall that President Wade’s party was considered to have done quite badly at the local elections last month, losing control of Dakar for example, and so this marks an attempt to relaunch the government.

The full local election results are available online in French at the following website. Basically, they show that President Wade’s Sopi coalition won 48.55%. So, the opposition was in a majority, though Sopi did well in rural areas. However, the opposition was very divided and local/independent candidates picked up a lot of votes: Benno Siggil Senegaal won 27.81%, Dekkal Ngor 2.39% and Liggey Senegaal 2.21%. The turnout was just over 50%.