On March 24th, the Senegalese went to the polls to elect their new president. This came after years of protests and tensions, which culminated in a political-judicial crisis involving the leader of the main opposition party PASTEF (Patriotes Africains du Sénégal pour le Travail, l’Éthique et la Fraternité) Ousmane Sonko. If the election postponement was a first in the country’s history, and seriously jeopardized Senegal as a long-standing democratic model in Africa, the March polls and their results seem to have marked a break with Dakar’s domestic, regional and international trajectory.
The electoral win of Bassirou Diomaye Faye – the PASTEF candidate after Sonko was prevented from running for the presidency due to the political-judicial crisis that dominated the run-up to the vote – has opened a new political phase of recalibration of both internal and external politics for Senegal. On the domestic side, the very first measure was to conduct a broad and in-depth audit of public finances which showed the political will to pave the way for a change. Abroad, the new president undertook several trips to other countries in West Africa, showed the willingness to hit the ground running by assuming the role of a key actor in the region. Dakar did so by showing a will to engage in dialogue with the military juntas of the Sahel. At the same time, a recasted approach in the relations with France has laid the foundations for a new political season. Diomaye Faye and, especially, Ousmane Sonko have not held back from harshly criticizing Paris’ relationship with the previous Senegalese government. The meeting of Diomaye Faye with the French President scheduled for 20 June in Paris will tell us more. In the meantime, it is worth taking a step back to understand Faye, Sonko and PASTEF’s path to take the reins of the country.
A tense pre-electoral context
The 2024 presidential election took place in a very particular context. The country has experienced three cycles of violence (March 2021, June 2023, February 2024) due to the demonstrations linked to the Sonko legal cases. Eventually sentenced in absentia to two years’ imprisonment for “corruption of youth”, the verdict triggered further demonstrations in the Senegalese capital and other towns, including Ziguinchor, where Sonko was elected mayor in the 2022 local elections.
Nine people were killed during the demonstrations, while the PASTEF-Patriots party denounced the arrest of over 1,500 people. Against this backdrop, with just a few months to go before the presidential election, Sall’s announcement in early July that he would not have stood for a third term had eased the tensions. Since his re-election in 2019, an alleged intention to run for a third term had been rumored although he had labelled his second mandate as the last one more than once. However, the tense political climate and challenging economic situation would have made it difficult to open such a front, even though many of his supporters favored this new candidacy. Senegalese civil society, which is highly invested in the issue, had expressed strong opposition to any attempt at a third mandate, as was the case in 2012 with former president Abdoulaye Wade.
The electoral period began in September 2023 in a difficult context at the end of which the Constitutional Council, the ultimate judge of the electoral process, had validated 21 candidacies. Among the top excluded from the election there was Karim Wade – the candidate of the Parti démocratique sénégalais (PDS) and son of the former president Abdoulaye Wade – whose candidacy had been contested on the grounds of his dual nationality (French and Senegalese), which is considered incompatible by the Senegalese Constitution.
On February 3, President Sall announced his decision to repeal the decree convening the electoral college and, consequently, to postpone the presidential election, originally scheduled for February 25, for reasons related to “a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Council, in open conflict over the alleged corruption of two judges”. This move, that potentially postponed elections until December 2024, resulted in a “derailment” of the electoral process, and the country plunged into political and social uncertainty. On February 15, the Constitutional Council, a referee of the “electoral game”, rejected the two texts underpinning the postponement of the presidential election to December 15, and invited the competent authorities to organize the election as soon as possible, considering the end of President Sall’s term of office on April 2.
In a final maneuver, Sall proposed the organization of a national dialogue between candidates, civil society, private sector, religious and customary authorities, with the aim of setting a new date for the presidential election. While most of the candidates refused to join the dialogue, its works went on, setting June 2 as the date for the presidential election. Later on, the Constitutional Council rejected the proposal and set the polls on 31 March. On the same day, in a cabinet meeting, President Sall finally set the election date on 24 March. An unusually quick – only two weeks long – campaign could then begin. Dominated by the two factions supporting the government candidate Amadou Ba and the opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the first week of the campaign was fairly calm, but things got more heated after Sonko and Diomaye Faye were released on March 14, after a contested amnesty law was passed by the National Assembly on March 7.
The first-round victory of a “rupture” candidate
In this election, marked by an unprecedented configuration, since the incumbent president was not a candidate, two visions seem to clash: the continuity embodied by Amadou Ba and the rupture carried by Diomaye Faye. Former Prime Minister Amadou Ba based his campaign on a message of continuity of the work of Macky Sall. The candidacy of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, “number 2” in Ousmane Sonko’s PASTEF party, was never supposed to see the light of day, but it was circumstances, and above all Sonko’s ineligibility due to his legal affairs, that prompted this strategy. The two men have similar professional backgrounds, founded the party together and Diomaye Faye coordinated work on the political project for the 2024 presidential election. His appointment as the presidential candidate was therefore functional to ensure that PASTEF would eventually have a candidate if Sonko’s candidacy was invalidated.
Diomaye Faye presented himself as the candidate of “rupture”. His campaign focused on the need to change the nature of governance itself, with the President of the Republic taking precedence over all other powers. He often raised the issue of sound management of public funds and the need for greater accountability, but also the independence of the judiciary branch as an important marker of democracy. Above all, he repeated his message to young people and his determination to create jobs on a massive scale through the establishment of industries. He also broadly emphasized the need for a win-win approach with foreign partners, especially in view of the exploitation of oil and gas.
On March 24, Senegalese calmly went to the polls. There was a large turnout of 61.3%, especially among young people and women. When the first results were announced, Diomaye showed strong momentum, first in the diaspora and then throughout the country. He won in the major cities, notably Dakar and its suburbs, Thiès, Diourbel, Kaolack and Ziguinchor, which are the most important areas in terms of electorate. The final results proclaimed by the Constitutional Council showed Diomaye Faye as the winner with 54.26% of the votes: it was the first time that an opponent has won a presidential election in the first round. The Senegalese people sent out a clear message right from the very first ballot: the message of change embodied by candidate Diomaye Faye and his party leader Ousmane Sonko. At 44, he became the youngest president elected in Senegal.
Senegalese democracy strained, but remained on “its feet”
Democracy in Senegal has emerged stronger after a long political crisis. Senegal is one of the few West African countries who has not experienced a coup d’état in his contemporary history. The population has a long democratic tradition, although the postponement of the presidential election has caused much concern, as the country is considered one of West Africa’s leading democracies. Over the past four years, the country has experienced difficult times, with tragic events leading to the deaths of young Senegalese during demonstrations. However, in the most difficult times, Senegal has always found the strength to perpetuate its tradition as one of West Africa’s leading democracies. The Constitutional Council has shown courage and responsibility in playing its role of upholding the Constitution, by not validating the extension of the presidential term of office, which would have been an explicit violation of one of the intangible provisions of the Constitution. These decisions by the Constitutional Council sent out a strong signal and further established role as a judge of the electoral process. During the campaign, many candidates diagnosed the “omnipotence” of the President of the Republic, who concentrates an enormous amount of power. The new president, Diomaye Faye, has pledged to reduce the excessive prerogatives of the President of the Republic as part of the reform process. In Senegal, as in other countries in the region, the need to strengthen all the institutions to ensure the balance of power, including the constitutional courts and the National Assembly, clearly emerges. President Faye appointed Ousmane Sonko as Prime Minister, leading a government of 25 ministers. Senegalese democracy has been seriously rocked in recent years, but it has managed to stay on “its feet”, with the Constitutional Council playing a major role in resolving the situation, and above all the willingness of Senegalese people in difficult times to go to the polls to choose their president. Senegal thus remains a source of democratic inspiration in Africa, despite the resurgence of coups d’état in West Africa and autocratic excesses.
Source link : https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/senegal-from-political-crisis-to-democratic-resilience-176170
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Publish date : 2024-06-06 10:17:49
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