This paper presents CEL, a new distributed eventual leader election algorithm for dynamic networks, which exploits topological information to improve the choice of a central leader and reduce message exchanges. The algorithm has a crosslayer neighbors detection, with a neighbor-aware mechanism, to improve the sharing of topological knowledge and elect a central leader faster. It uses a self-pruning mechanism based on topological knowledge, combined with probabilistic gossip, to improve the performance of broadcast propagation. Evaluations were conducted on the OMNeT++ environment, simulating realistic MANET with interference, collision, and messages loss. Using different parameters values, we have compared CEL to Gómez-Calzado et al. algorithm [1], on the Random Walk and the Truncated Lévy Walk mobility models. The results show better performances than [1], including fewer messages sent, shortest paths to the leader, and a more stable algorithm.