Highlights: Abdoulaye Bathily is a historian, former MP and minister, and currently special representative of the UN Secretary General for Libya. He welcomed the outcome of the presidential election in his country, following the announced victory of Bassirou Diomaye Faye. Bathily: “The Senegalese presidential election took on the appearance of a referendum against the power in place” “It is a new page in the history of Senegal which opens with immense hope and enormous challenges,” he says.

The Senegalese Abdoulaye Bathily is a historian, former MP and minister, and currently special representative of the UN Secretary General for Libya. During the special edition of RFI, this March 25…

Interview

Abdoulaye Bathily: “The Senegalese presidential election took on the appearance of a referendum against the power in place”

Passion de liberté: Mémoires

, welcomed the outcome of the presidential election in his country, following the announced victory of Bassirou Diomaye Faye. Interview.

[Illustrative image] Abdoulaye Bathily, UN Special Representative for Libya and head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (Manul), giving a press conference in Tripoli on March 11, 2023. AFP - MAHMUD TURKIA

By: Zéphyrin Kouadio

RFI :
Abdoulaye Bathily
, on the social network
Are you relieved and proud this Monday evening

?

Abdoulaye Bathily:

Yes, like all Senegalese, I am very proud of what happened yesterday. Having been one of the major actors in this epic of Senegalese political life over the last 60 years, having participated, with many comrades, many compatriots, in the construction of this democracy, and seeing what happened these Over the last 20 years, the conquests that we have obtained, and which were demolished one after the other during the first alternation under Abdoulaye Wade, and during the second alternation under Macky Sall, I find that this victory of Pastef takes today the appearance of a real referendum to indicate a new path forward for the Senegalese people. That is to say, the anchoring in democracy, the consolidation of achievements, the march forward of the Senegalese people for more justice, for more progress.

There is reason to be proud of the fact that it is obviously this new generation of politicians who are achieving this. For me, it is a source of great pride, and I have shared this pride with many of our compatriots since last night.

Read alsoSpecial edition - Senegal: Macky Sall “congratulates the winner Bassirou Diomaye Faye”

Let's return to the last hours of this Senegalese political sequence. Even if the latest trends regarding the results left little room for doubt, did it surprise you that Amadou Ba admitted defeat?

This does not surprise me, because the gap is so immense between the first two candidates... As of last night, when we listened to the commentators on the radio recounting the results, it was very clear that there was no no possibility of reversing the trend. And so, this corresponds to an immense wave in the country and which has really developed in the countryside, in the cities, almost everywhere. And so, today is a well-deserved victory. It is a new page in the history of Senegal which opens with immense hope and enormous challenges.

For those who are going to lead the country, it will be necessary to rebuild – and this is a commonly shared aspiration – our democratic system, to consolidate it. And I think everyone should participate in that. I hope that the new authorities will take the full measure of what has happened and that all the institutions will be rebuilt with a view to their lasting consolidation.

Also, on an economic and social level, young people have immense aspirations. So the projects are enormous. It will take a lot of patience. Above all, a lot of rationality will be required in the approach. State building, as everyone knows, is much more complex.

How do you explain this clear victory for Bassirou Diomaye Faye, on a purely political level?

The election took on the appearance of a referendum against the power in place, for or against the power in place. So there was basically no middle ground. When you compare the scores of the other candidates with those of the other two, there is a very big difference.

The Senegalese, first of all, no longer wanted the extension of this regime at all. And even the prospect of a transition, as was mentioned at a certain point, if the election was not completed on April 2

[date of the end of Macky Sall's mandate, Editor's note

] – the Senegalese do not didn't want to, because it was going to plunge us into yet another crisis.

But is it more of a vote against, or a vote for

It is a sanction vote, fundamentally, against the regime in place. And I must say it, having participated in the two past alternations: the alternation of 2000, we voted against the party in power at the time, the Socialist Party led by Abdou Diouf, which had been in power for 40 years . And, when debunking him in 2000, the slogan was: “

Let him go, let him go, let him go, we’ve had enough

!”

And in 2012, when Abdoulaye Wade also tried to have his third term which also resulted in a new political crisis, naturally, the Senegalese rebelled against this attempt to manipulate the Constitution. They no longer wanted to hear about the regime of the Senegalese Democratic Party and Abdoulaye Wade, which led, obviously, to the arrival of Macky Sall, which no one expected.

Abdoulaye Bathily: “The Senegalese presidential election took on the appearance of a referendum against the power in place”

Abdoulaye Bathily: “The Senegalese presidential election took on the appearance of a referendum against the power in place”

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