The leading presidential candidate in the Senegalese elections, Basirou Diomaye Faye (Anatolia)

The days have passed, and the newspapers of Senegalese President Macky Sall and his wife, Maryam Fay, will soon leave the presidential palace, replaced by another man and another woman. It appears that Basirou Diomaye Fay, who shares a family name with the wife of the outgoing president, has become - according to preliminary preliminary results - the name closest to the palace. Presidential Council in Senegal, among more than 17 who strived for this lofty position in the country of “democratic exception” in Africa.

Basirou belongs to the youth. He is one of the youngest presidential candidates in his country. He is only 44 years old, one of which he spent behind bars in the Cap Manual prison in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, before he left after six days of campaigning following a general amnesty issued by him. President Mackie is in the context of trying to calm the political scene coinciding with the end of his term.

From the prison gate, Faye went out to the field, to realize that 10 days of electoral campaigning were, in reality, only a limited part of a long electoral campaign in favor of Faye and his electoral alliance, as the political crisis, judicial prosecutions, and President Sall’s recent decisions contributed to postponing the elections and the discontent they raised within Senegalese circles. There is a lot of propaganda for this candidate who has just emerged from a struggle that lasted for three years and ended with him being imprisoned. He then climbed to the top ranks in the results announced in the elections so far, as the most likely candidate, or the fifth president of Senegal according to his supporters.

Faye belongs to the Ambour region (western Senegal), specifically to the agricultural village of Ndiaganyaw, and between the fields and the kindergarten the boy lived part of his childhood and adolescence, before he obtained the high school (baccalaureate) in the year 2000, and the boy did not hide his dissatisfaction with the result he obtained in the baccalaureate exam. He believed that he had achieved first-class honors with his pen, and he was not satisfied with merely passing an exam that has always been an insurmountable obstacle for large numbers of high school students in the country.

Faye's supporters celebrate his progress in the results of the presidential primary elections (French)

He was twenty years old at that time, and the other twenty years were divided between studying at Cheikh Anta Job University (the largest Senegalese university), from which he obtained a master’s degree in law, before passing the entrance exam to the National School of Administration, before graduating there as a tax inspector. From there, the gateway to a political horizon opened for the man. He began a close friendship with his companion and political “mentor,” Othman Sonko.

The two parties share the work of high officials in the tax administration. They also participated in political work, and in establishing the “Patriots for Work, Ethics and Fraternity” party, known as “Pastif” for short, and they shared the struggle and conflict with the regime of President Macky Sall.

Sonko was more at the forefront than Basiro, but the latter had some name recognition, as the leaders of the party whose general secretariat he held saw in him a calm man who was a strong communicator, stubborn in defending his ideas, and committed to the decisions issued by a majority of votes, even if they contradicted his opinion.

In addition to the artistic and political training, Basiro and Sonko also participated in the gym, so there are many commonalities between two men, one of whom wanted the presidency and sought it as he did, while fate led it to another, whose party threw him out at the last moment after it became clear that the famous oppositionist Othman was nominated. Sonko has become rich due to the judicial rulings that put him behind bars.

Basiro.. Hakim Bastif and the maker of his expansion abroad

In April of last year, Basiru was sentenced to prison on charges of contempt of court and insulting the judiciary. He entered prison with an elite group of leaders of Pastif, the party he first entered during the founding meetings of the Pastif Party in 2014, before he gradually and rapidly rose to become one of The main decision-makers in the party, and the strong arm of its president, Ousman Sonko.

Basirou took over the General Secretariat of the party - which was dissolved in July 2023 - with the file of Senegalese abroad, and his numerous tours in Europe in particular enabled him to mobilize support and political and financial support for the party, which was able, in a short period, to acquire the lion’s share. From supporting the youth masses in his country.

It can be said that the alliance of Sonko and Basiro, and the young faces surrounding them, was able to powerfully reorganize the anger of Senegalese society due to high prices, low employment opportunities, and imbalanced economic balance policies, according to what the opponents of the outgoing president see.

A religious person in an ancient secular palace

Basirou is classified among the indicators of political transformations in Senegal, as many believe that he and his back, Ousmane Sonko, are part of the Islamic phenomenon that is expanding in Senegal.

Basiro has an Islamic appearance with a relatively long beard compared to the rest of his rivals for the presidential elections, and there is widespread support from the new Islamic movements that were betting on this young man as an alternative to political regimes and forces long rooted in secularism.

Basirou's political discourse presents much of the literature common among Senegalese youth circles, especially the growing complaint against French control, as he announced in his campaign a monetary reform program that would end the control of the African franc, which has French origins and dependence, and establish a special Senegalese currency, if West African countries are unable Of issuing a unified currency.

French does not seem to be a favorite language for Sonko, who threatens to strengthen the presence of her English counterpart, who has great global influence and influence.

As part of his escalating threat, Basirou carries on himself the idea of ​​purifying “the political class by removing corruptors from power and restoring Senegal’s sovereignty,” as he puts it.

Basiri's promise to review the defense agreements also means another message to France that the new ruler of Dakar will not remain dependent on the French trigger, but rather will seek to diversify his holdings and his security and political relations.

Gas agreements.. and a renewed feast towards Mauritania

Following in Sonko's footsteps, presidential candidate Faye promises qualitative and effective reviews of many of the agreements that bind Senegal with the world around it, especially with regard to mines, mining and hydrocarbons, in addition to defense agreements.

Mauritania appears to be the party concerned with the most concerns, especially with regard to reviewing the joint gas agreements between the two countries, a demand that has been repeatedly repeated by the leader of the Pastif Party, Ousmane Sonko, who believes that the Senegalese presidents have ceded various Senegalese lands and interests to Mauritania, according to what was reported by the media.

In particular, the joint gas between the two countries, as Sonko believes - according to a circulated statement - that the majority of the joint field is located in Senegalese territory, and that the current division is not fair between two peoples, one of which has 14 million people, and the other three and a half million people, according to him.

It does not seem that the threats of Sonko, the most prominent candidate to occupy the position of Prime Minister or Vice President under the rule of his friend Fay - if he actually wins - raise many fears in Nouakchott, but they are not the ingenuity of an opening in the relationship between the two neighbors who have previously experienced war and peace, tension and friendliness.

Among the post-inauguration files, the man will find himself facing crises greater than he imagined, and possibilities many times what he had, and among these many files, managing a living between two wives in the presidential palace, in a precedent that is the first of its kind in Senegalese history, which is full of diversity and pluralism.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies