Pictures of the candidates appear in the squares and streets of the capital, Dakar (Anadolu Agency)

Today, Sunday, the Senegalese elected their fifth president in a vote whose outcome cannot be predicted at all. He will decide between continuity or perhaps radical change after 3 years of turmoil and political crises.

About 7.3 million voters were invited to choose, in about 16 thousand polling stations throughout the country and abroad, between the power candidate, Amadou Ba, and 16 competitors, including a woman and the anti-regime Basserou Diomaye Faye.

The elections may mark the end of a regime that has maintained pro-investment policies in the country that will soon become an oil and gas producer, but has been unable to reduce economic difficulties and the effects of unrest in one of the most stable democracies in the West African region, which has witnessed many coups.

The most prominent candidates

Amadou Ba - (62 years old), who is Prime Minister during the era of outgoing President Macky Sall, and Basserou Diomaye Faye (43 years old), the “regime change candidate” - are considered the most prominent candidates, and among the most fortunate in these elections, which lack reliable opinion polls. Her expectations.

Both candidates claim that they are able to win today's elections, without having to go through a second round, which seems likely but whose date has not yet been determined.

Amadou Ba, the ruling regime’s candidate, shakes hands with his supporters (Reuters)

Other contenders include former Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall (no relation to the outgoing president), entrepreneur-turned-politician Anta Babacar Angoum, the only woman to run, and veteran politician Idrissa Seck, who finished second in the 2017 presidential election. 2019.

Polling offices will remain open until six o'clock in the evening local time (the same as international time), and preliminary results may be announced at night, with partial official results issued later, a few days later.

Civil society, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the European Union are deploying hundreds of observers to monitor the elections.

An election festival for candidate Bassero Diomai Faye (Reuters)

The importance of elections

These elections are of great importance and will be closely monitored, as Senegal is one of the most stable countries in West Africa, many of which are rocked by coups and political unrest, and Dakar has maintained strong relations with the West while Russia is strengthening its presence in the neighbourhood.

Senegalese were scheduled to cast their votes on February 25, but a last-minute postponement led to a political crisis and sparked violence that left 4 dead and a number of others injured, before President Macky Sall agreed to return to the electoral process after the Constitutional Council’s decision to set deadlines for the electoral process. .

Source: Agencies