SEMEGAL’S veteran opposition leader Abdoulaye Wade won presidential elections on Monday to end 40 years of Socialist Party rule in the traditionally stable West African country. President Abdou Diouf, who has held office for 19 years, conceded defeat to Wade in the vote after a stream of disastrous results from the big towns where the Social Democrats have their power base. “The President telephoned Mr Wade, the elected president of the republic, on Monday morning to congratulate him warmly on his victory,” said a statement from the presidency, read out on the private Sud FM radio station. “He offered him his best wishes for success in his difficult, noble and exciting mission in the service of the entire Senegalese people,” it added. Senegal, on the Atlantic coast at the furthest tip of West Africa, has a reputation for stability in a region prone to turmoil. There has been no coup or revolution since independence from France in 1960.