Senegal is preparing to experience the epilogue of an electoral soap opera with multiple twists and turns. Sunday March 24, seven million voters are called to the polls across the country to elect the next President of the Republic.
This election is exceptional in more than one way. First of all because it marks the end of Macky Sall's presidency, after twelve years in power. With 17 candidates in the running, it is also the most open presidential election since the country's independence in 1960.
Finally, it constitutes the culmination of an intense political battle around the date of the election, initially scheduled for February 25, and whose cancellation three weeks earlier by the president had caused a shock wave in the country. France 24 retraces the different stages of this unprecedented democratic crisis.
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Senegal: in Dakar, the campaign is in full swing © LauraMoussetDiallo
Surprise interruption of the presidential election
Saturday February 3, Macky Sall speaks on national television. A few hours before the start of the presidential campaign, he announced, against all expectations, the indefinite postponement of the vote.
“Our country has been confronted for several days with a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Council, in open conflict against the backdrop of an alleged case of corruption of judges,” he explained, believing that this situation threatens the credibility of the vote.
Four days earlier, the Senegalese Parliament approved a parliamentary investigation to shed light on the conditions for invalidating the candidacies. This had been requested by the party of Karim Wade, excluded from the presidential race because he holds French nationality, while only Senegalese candidates – and only Senegalese – can compete. His supporters claimed to suspect two judges of the Constitutional Council of having "dubious connections" with some of them, in particular Amadou Ba, Prime Minister and designated heir of Macky Sall.
At the same time, another candidate, Rose Wardini, whose candidacy was validated by the Constitutional Council, was placed in police custody for "forgery and use of forgery and fraud in judgment", suspected of also having dual nationality. Franco-Senegalese.
Political maneuvering?
For Macky Sall, “these murky conditions” could “establish the seeds of pre- and post-electoral litigation”. “Our country cannot afford to experience a new crisis” after the episodes of violence in March 2021 and June 2023, underlines the president.
Macky Sall announces the establishment of a “national dialogue” for “a free, transparent and inclusive election”, while reaffirming his commitment not to run as a candidate.
But this decision raises many questions in Senegal, in particular because the deputies of the ruling party themselves voted in favor of the creation of the parliamentary commission of inquiry. While they claim to want to cleanse the honor of their candidate Amadou Ba, the opposition criticizes a maneuver intended to torpedo the presidential election and avoid the defeat of the majority candidate.
Contested even in his own camp, Prime Minister Amadou Ba faces two dissident candidacies: those of the former Minister of the Interior, Aly Ngouille Ndiaye, and the former Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, one time director office of the head of state.
But in general opinion, the threat to the candidate of power comes above all from Bassirou Diomaye Faye, perceived as the main opponent, chosen by Ousmane Sonko to replace him in the presidential election after the invalidation of his candidacy.
Reacting to Macky Sall's decision to interrupt the election, Amadou Ba (homonym not to be confused with the Prime Minister), lawyer and supporter of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, criticizes arguments of "incredible lightness", indicating that the commission of inquiry was only set up on “simple suspicions of corruption”.
The day after the head of state's speech, hundreds of Senegalese demonstrated in Dakar, where clashes broke out with the police.
Postponement of the election to December 15
To cancel the vote, Macky Sall repealed the decree summoning the electoral body. It remains to set a new date. Karim Wade's coalition, which requests a six-month postponement, then submits a bill to Parliament. In a particularly tense context, the deputies finally approved, on February 5, the postponement of the vote to December 15, judging the date initially proposed, August 25, to be inauspicious due to the rainy season.
But this new deadline de facto leads to an additional ten-month extension of Macky Sall's mandate, which is supposed to end on April 2. Many voices are being raised to denounce a “constitutional coup d’état” allowing the president to remain in power.
Several presidential candidates then filed appeals before the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Council to block this postponement.
In the streets, tension rises a notch. On February 9 and the following days, demonstrations organized across the country were repressed by the police. Four Senegalese died in Saint-Louis, Dakar and Ziguinchor, in the south of the country, as part of these events which constitute the worst outbreak of violence of this period of crisis.
Also read: Senegal: “The demonstrators poured out their anger on everything they saw”
Boost for a vote on March 24
On February 15, the Constitutional Council delivered its verdict on the appeal filed by the opposition. And it's a cold shower for the majority: Macky Sall's decree repealing the election is canceled for lack of legal basis. The law adopted by Parliament to postpone the presidential election must suffer the same fate, decrees the institution, because it violates the Constitution.
Noting “the impossibility of organizing the presidential election on the date initially planned” of February 25, the Constitutional Council “invites the competent authorities to hold it as soon as possible”.
At the beginning of March, the "national dialogue" organized by the head of state, but boycotted by the opposition, recommended that the election be held on June 2. Macky Sall would remain in office until the inauguration of the fifth president of Senegal. A proposal again rejected by the Constitutional Council, which sets as imperative the holding of the vote before the end of the president's mandate, on April 2.
On March 7, Macky Sall and the Constitutional Council finally agreed on the date of March 24. A deadline which makes it possible to avoid the Easter holiday, the following Sunday, but implies that the presidential campaign takes place in the middle of the month of Ramadan – a first in the history of the country. The duration of the campaign is also reduced from 21 to 17 days to allow the organization of this express ballot.
On March 14, as part of an amnesty law adopted by Parliament a week earlier, Ousmane Sonko and his replacement candidate, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, were released from prison ten days before the election, arousing the fervor of their supporters who demonstrate their joy in the streets of Dakar.
Finally, the following day, a final request from Karim Wade's camp aimed at banning the vote on the grounds of too short an organization time was rejected by the Supreme Court, which thus removed the last potential obstacle to the holding of the vote. presidential election on March 24.
Presidential election in Senegal: instructions for use
Around 7.3 million Senegalese voters (out of 18 million inhabitants) are called to vote on Sunday March 24 to elect their fifth President of the Republic. This is the twelfth presidential election since the country's independence in 1960.
This election was at the heart of a political crisis in February after President Macky Sall decided to cancel the vote, triggering demonstrations repressed by security forces. The vote was subsequently postponed for ten months by a vote of the National Assembly. After a month of hesitation which alarmed national opinion and part of the international community, the date of the presidential election was finally set for March 24 – before the expiration of Macky Sall's mandate – after a decision by the Council constitutional.
🗳️ What is the voting method
?
In Senegal, the President of the Republic is elected by direct universal suffrage and by single-member majority voting in two rounds. Since the constitutional referendum of 2016, the duration of his mandate is five years, renewable only once.
To win in the first round, a candidate must obtain an absolute majority (more than 50% of the votes). If none of the candidates achieves this score, a second round is organized within two weeks following the announcement of the results in order to decide between the two candidates who came first.
🗳️ Who can vote
?
According to article L.26 of the Electoral Code, any Senegalese citizen aged 18 or over, enjoying their civil and political rights and registered on the electoral lists, can vote in the presidential election. Naturalized Senegalese foreigners who have retained no other nationality, and Senegalese foreigners who have acquired nationality by marriage are also authorized to vote, unless opposed by the government by decree.
🗳️ Who are the candidates
?
For the first time in the political history of Senegal, the outgoing president, Macky Sall, in power since 2012, is not a candidate.
According to article 28 of the Senegalese Constitution, any person who is exclusively of Senegalese nationality can be a candidate for the presidency of the Republic. Several candidates were rejected because of their dual nationality, such as Karim Wade, candidate of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), who renounced his nationality "too late".
The final list of candidates for the presidential election was made public on January 20. Initially composed of 20 names, it now only includes 18 names after the withdrawals of Rose Wardini - following suspicions surrounding her dual Senegalese and French nationality - and Cheikh Tidiane Dieye. The latter announced on Wednesday March 20 that he was withdrawing in favor of the anti-system candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
Ousmane Sonko, the central figure in a standoff lasting more than two years with the state which gave rise to several episodes of deadly unrest, was excluded from the presidential race in January.
➡️ Find here our article on the four main presidential candidates.
🗳️ How were they chosen
?
To be able to run in the presidential election, candidates had to collect sponsorship from voters registered on the electoral lists.
Each candidate is entitled to three types of sponsorship according to article L.121 of the Electoral Code:
citizen sponsorship, according to which he must obtain nearly 45,000 valid sponsorships, or 0.6% of the electorate, with at least 2,000 signatures per region in seven regions, supplemented if necessary by signatures in the rest of the countries or across the diaspora, knowing that the same voter can only sponsor one candidate;
sponsorship of deputies, which requires each candidate to be sponsored by a list of 13 elected representatives of the National Assembly;
sponsorship of elected officials which provides that each candidate can be sponsored by 120 mayors or presidents of departmental councils.
Added to these sponsorships is the payment of a compulsory deposit of 30 million CFA francs (nearly 46,000 euros) to validate an application file.
🗳️ When will the results be known
?
If the first results could be known as early as the night of Sunday to Monday, it is generally necessary to wait several days before the proclamation of the official results by the Constitutional Council.
In the meantime, the results reports are sent to each departmental court, compiled and then transmitted to the regional level.
Article L.88 of the Electoral Code provides that each region then has until the Tuesday following polling day at midnight to publish its results. The proclamation of the results by the departmental census commission takes place no later than midnight on the Friday following the election, i.e. March 29 this year.
After the announcement of the provisional results, candidates have 72 hours to file an appeal.
Once the deadlines for processing appeals have been exhausted, the Constitutional Council proclaims the official results and a second round is organized if no candidate has obtained an absolute majority.
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