Presidential election in Senegal: the former Pastef in search of a new campaign strategy

In Senegal, an unprecedented campaign started on Saturday March 9.

Unprecedented by its duration - less than two weeks - but also by its configuration: one of the favorites of the ballot, the candidate of the dissolved party, Pastef, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, is still in preventive detention and cannot campaign, deprived also the possibility of recording his campaign spots on the public television channel.

Pastef is therefore trying to build a campaign strategy despite the constraints.

Caravan of the coalition which supports Bassirou Diomaye Faye, opposition presidential candidate, in Senegal, during the electoral campaign in Dakar, this Sunday March 10, 2024. AFP - SEYLLOU

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The candidate of the dissolved party Pastef can count on the support of two other candidates in the presidential race in

Senegal

.

First of all, Habib Sy, several times minister and former chief of staff of Abdoulaye Wade, sponsored and therefore candidate, thanks to the Pastef deputies.

If Habib Sy says he maintains his candidacy, since Saturday, he has attended the various meetings and caravans in support of candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye and says he defends the same project.

Visibility 

The other ally is Cheikh Tidiane Dieye, former campaign director of opponent Ousmane Sonko in 2019 and leader of the political movement Avenir

-Senegaal

bi

ñu

bëgg

.

He also maintains his candidacy, but claims to campaign for the Pastef program and to give visibility to Bassirou Diomaye Faye, while the latter is deprived - for the moment - of the possibility of recording campaign clips at the public television.

“ 

It’s a strategy to bring people together, like in a big political coalition

 ,” explains the campaign director of the ex-Pastef, Mustapha Guirassy.

Perhaps at the risk of some confusion for voters: “

How can we have three candidates around a single program 

”, worries a member of the ex-Pastef.

Legal front

The former Pastef who is also mobilizing on the legal front.

And promises to refer today to the National Electoral Commission, or even the Supreme Court, so that it can annul the decision to deprive Bassirou Diomaye Faye of airtime on public television and authorize him to appoint a representative to speak in his name, while he is behind bars.

Read alsoSenegal: the lightning electoral campaign continues, in a tense political climate

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