As detailed results from around the country trickled in Amadou Ba former Prime Minister and standard bearer for the ruling Benno Bokk Yaakaar (BBY) alliance could draw only one conclusion...

When they joined it was headed by Amadou Ba Faye's main rival in the 24 March election...

Many of those didn't share the Faye-Sonko radical aspirations but wanted to eject a Sall/Amadou Ba government that they regarded as having eroded respect for democracy and good governance...

The two leading candidates out of 19 contenders in the first round of voting are: former prime minister Amadou Ba who is 62; his main opponent and radical nationalist Bassirou Diomaye Faye is 44...

Amadou Ba who is the candidate for the ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) coalition has quit his post as prime minister ostensibly to allow him more time to campaign...

Many think that he may have secured covert backing from Sall who was worried that his chosen successor the technocratic prime minister Amadou Ba could not win (AC Vol 65 No 3 A crowded field)...

As that plan unfolded it was becoming clearer that the technocratic Prime Minister Amadou Ba handpicked by Sall as a successor last September might not even make it into the top two in the first round of voting...

Both the Sonko/Faye team and the government camp represented by Prime Minister Amadou Ba are publicly hopeful of outright victory in the first ballot on 25 February...

Prime Minister Amadou Ba's status as the favourite has been strengthened by the confirmation of a defamation conviction against opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and the rejection of his application to stand in the presidential election (AC Vol 64 No 19 Sall's 'safe choice' hits turbulence)...

While Sonko's team wrestle with these bureaucratic and legal obstacles President Macky Sall's chosen successor the Prime Minister Amadou Ba presses ahead with his campaign exploiting official engagements to the full...