After three years of agitation and crisis, the Senegalese are still waiting on Monday March 25 to know the outcome of the presidential election which will decide between continuity and perhaps radical change. Senegal remains uncertain about the need for a second round, for which no date has yet been set.
Official results of the vote held on Sunday are not expected to be known until later this week. The national electoral commission has until Friday to publish provisional results, before their validation by the Constitutional Council.
The results published in the media and on social networks place the candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye ahead of that of power, Amadou Ba, and very far ahead of the others.
Amadou Ba's camp made journalists wait for hours in the middle of the night from Sunday to Monday for a statement from him at his headquarters, before tersely announcing to them that he would speak during the day on Monday.
At least seven of the 17 candidates congratulated Bassirou Diomaye Faye in view of the provisional results published by the media. The certainty of victory sparked scenes of jubilation among his supporters in the capital. But the campaign management of the ruling candidate assured that these demonstrations were premature. She said she was certain that, "in the worst case scenario", Amadou Ba would be in the second round.
Bassirou Diomaye Faye released from prison ten days before the election
A victory for Bassirou Diomaye Faye would be akin to a political earthquake, not only because at 44 years old as of Monday he would become the youngest president of Senegal.
People queue in front of a polling station located in a school in downtown Dakar, March 24, 2024. © Carmen Abd Ali, AFP
Bassirou Diomaye Faye, benefiting from an amnesty law, came out of eleven months of imprisonment ten days before the election, at the same time as his guide and leader of their dissolved party Ousmane Sonko.
Bassirou Diomaye Faye wants to be the “candidate for system change” and “left-wing Pan-Africanism”. His program insists on the reestablishment of national “sovereignty”, which he believes has been sold off abroad. He promised to fight corruption and better distribute wealth, and also pledged to renegotiate mining, gas and oil contracts concluded with foreign companies. Senegal could start producing gas and oil in 2024.
The election is being followed closely, Senegal being considered one of the most stable countries in a West Africa shaken by putsch. Dakar maintains strong relations with the West, while Russia strengthens its surrounding positions.
The Senegalese opposition candidate in a polling station in Dakar, March 24, 2024. © Seyllou, AFP
This country of 18 million inhabitants has experienced various episodes of unrest since 2021 caused by the standoff between Ousmane Sonko and the government, combined with social tensions and the vagueness long maintained by President Macky Sall over his candidacy for a third term. .
“The break” or stability
Senegal plunged into one of its most serious crises in decades when President Macky Sall decreed on February 3 a postponement of the presidential election scheduled for three weeks later.
The unrest has left dozens dead in three years and led to hundreds of arrests.
Both camps blame each other for these events which have altered the Senegalese democratic showcase. Bassirou Diomaye Faye promised "the break" by voting alongside his two wives on Sunday in his village of Ndiaganiao.
Amadou Ba, who was still President Macky Sall's Prime Minister a few weeks ago, poses as a guarantor of stability. He presents Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Ousmane Sonko as “adventurers” or “amateurs”.
He must assume, however, all aspects of the legacy of President Macky Sall: the major works which transformed the face of Senegal, but also persistent poverty, high unemployment and the hundreds of arrests of the recent period.
With AFP
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