Special edition

Presidential election in Senegal: deciphering the victory of Bassirou Diomaye Faye

In Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye spoke his first words as future president of the country on March 25, 2024, the day after the first round of voting. How can we explain the massive success of the candidate from a political formulation dissolved by the authorities and who was still in prison a few days ago? Decryption with the special edition of RFI of March 26, 2024.

Listen - 44:51

Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44, will become the fifth president of Senegal, following the promulgation of the results of this election won in the first round, on March 24, 2024. © Reuters & AFP Photos - RFI Montage

By: RFI Follow

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It is a phone call that will go down in the history of

Senegal 

: less than 24 hours after the closing of the polling stations for the first round of the

presidential election

on March 24, 2024, Amadou Ba, former Prime Minister and candidate of the majority, called the opponent Bassirou Diomaye Faye to recognize his defeat, as the former head of state Abdoulaye Wade did in 2012 with the then young president, Macky Sall.

Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44, right-hand man of opponent Ousmane Sonko for 10 years, will thus access the highest functions of the State.

If, however, Bassirou tries to deviate a little from our trajectory, we will pull his ears!

01:23

Presidential election in Senegal: for supporters of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, he will change the country

Charlotte Idrac

It is a page of history that is being written, a new peaceful democratic alternation, a promise of rupture also which RFI returns to in its special edition.

With the participation of:

-

Fatou Diagne Senghor

, human rights defender, director of the Afrikajom Center think tank

-

Christopher Fomunyoh

, Africa Director of NDI, a think tank based in Washington

-

Seydi Gassama

, director of the NGO Amnesty Senegal

-

Francis Kpatindé

, journalist and teacher at Sciences Po Paris

-

Valdiodio Ndiaye

, electoral expert, former Secretary General of the Collective of Civil Society Organizations for Elections

-

Léa-Lisa Westerhoff

, RFI correspondent in Dakar

- Frédéric Couteau,

author of the Africa and France press reviews on RFI

A special edition broadcast from 7:10 a.m. to 8 a.m. UT this Tuesday and presented by

Nathalie Amar

, coordinated by

Carine Frenk

,

Céline Pellarin

and

Léa-Lisa Westerhoff,

and produced by 

Didier Cheyrouze.

I feel relief and pride. Relief, because we came close to corrections and we avoided a postponement which would have been a great harm to our democracy. We escaped it. At the same time, pride in seeing these mature people who peacefully went to the polling station and returned home. And ultimately, they are a people who know what they want. And really, it's great. I think it is a lesson in democracy that he is giving to all of Africa. All I hope is that what has just happened in Senegal can spread across Africa. [...] It is through democracy that we will achieve development, not through authoritarian regimes.

01:03

Babacar Guèye, professor of constitutional law at Ucad and member of Aar sunu Election, a collective which defended the holding of the presidential election before April 2

Carine Frenk

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