The youngest president of Senegal, the left-wing pan-Africanist Bassirou Diomaye Faye, elected on the promise of breaking with the system in place, will be sworn in on Tuesday April 2 after a lightning rise, facing challenges as considerable as the hopes placed in him.
Never elected before, at the age of 44 he will become the fifth president of the West African country since independence in 1960.
The investiture ceremony is scheduled for late morning in Diamniadio, near Dakar.
Bassirou Diomaye Faye succeeds for five years Macky Sall, 62, who led the country of 18 million inhabitants for 12 years and maintained strong relations with the West and France.
Several heads of state, including the Nigerian Bola Ahmed Tinubu, current president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Mauritanian Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, the Gambian Adama Barrow, the Guinean Mamadi Doumbouya and the Bissau-Guinean Umaro Sissoco Embalo are announced. Ivorian Vice-President Tiémoko Meyliet Koné, Rwandan Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente and the president of the body serving as Parliament in Mali, Malick Diaw, are expected.
The transfer of power between Macky Sall and Bassirou Diomaye Faye will then take place at the presidential palace in Dakar.
This alternation at the polls, the third in the history of Senegal, marks the end of a three-year standoff between Macky Sall and the winning duo of the presidential election of March 24: Bassirou Diomaye Faye and the one who, disqualified, dubbed him, Ousmane Sonko.
Read alsoSenegal: what role for Ousmane Sonko with future president Bassirou Diomaye Faye?
New generation of politicians
Nicknamed "Diomaye" ("the honorable" in Serer), Bassirou Diomaye Faye is a practicing Muslim, married to two wives - he is the first polygamous Senegalese president - and has four children. The man with the youthful face embodies a new generation of young politicians.
The promise of rupture, the anointing of Ousmane Sonko and the apparent humility of this personality from a modest and educated background led him to a resounding victory in the first round of the presidential election with 54.28% of the votes. , just 10 days after his release from prison.
Hailed by Paris, Washington and the African Union, his election, celebrated by jubilant crowds, was preceded by three years of tensions and unrest which left dozens of people dead.
Senegal, known as an island of stability in West Africa, went through a new crisis in February when President Macky Sall decreed the postponement of the presidential election, deepening mistrust between part of the population and its leaders.
An admirer of former American President Barack Obama but also of the South African hero of the anti-apartheid struggle Nelson Mandela, Faye calls himself a "left-wing" pan-Africanist and advocates the rebalancing of international partnerships.
Senegal will remain an ally “for any partner who engages with us in virtuous, respectful and mutually productive cooperation,” he said after his election.
He wants to work for the return to ECOWAS of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, Sahelian countries led by juntas which broke with the former French colonial power and turned towards Russia.
Cost of living, corruption and national reconciliation
This senior official of the tax administration, who discreetly climbed the ranks in the shadow of Ousmane Sonko, mentioned his priority projects after his victory: "reduction in the cost of living", "fight against corruption" and “national reconciliation”.
Brought to power by the Senegalese desire for change, he will have to face significant challenges. His concrete projects remain unclear, as does the place given to Ousmane Sonko.
He will first have to appoint a government, which will be composed of “Senegalese men and women from the interior and the diaspora known for their competence, their integrity and their patriotism”, he indicated.
The new president, not having a majority in the Assembly, should be forced to form alliances to pass laws before a possible dissolution.
It is particularly expected on the employment front, in a country where 75% of the population is under 35 and where the unemployment rate is officially 20%, pushing more and more young people to flee. poverty and to undertake a perilous journey to Europe.
With AFP
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