Dakar, Senegal – “Lastly, we will breathe,” the cashier on the American Meals Retailer grocery store in Dakar mentioned whereas swiping a pot of Greek yoghurt via checkout.
It was three days after Senegal’s contested March 24 presidential election – the day provisional outcomes have been introduced – and there was a way that one thing had turned: a brand new vigour for democracy led to by the election of opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
The 44-year-old was sworn in on Tuesday after years of political turmoil and fears that outgoing President Macky Sall – who had already been in energy for 12 years – would attempt to prolong his mandate into a 3rd time period.
For months, the nation was on tenterhooks.
However after a whirlwind election cycle and final week’s landslide win for the younger, anti-establishment candidate who was in jail simply 20 days in the past, there may be now a palpable feeling amongst Senegalese that change has come.
‘Vote towards the system’
On election day, voters started arriving at daybreak, hours earlier than polling stations opened.
Contained in the playground of Nafissatou Niang Elemtary College in Dakar that served as one of many polling stations, voters in flamboyant boubou robes, previous suited males with newspapers in hand and younger males in faux Balenciaga T-shirts, lined up, all standing in silence.
Amongst them was 37-year-old Julia Sagna, who mentioned she was decided to make use of her vote to battle again.
Wearing a gray energy swimsuit, she stood poised and slightly nervous as a result of she had by no means voted earlier than. She mentioned she by no means needed to till she felt it actually mattered. This time, she was certain: “The brand new, younger voters would vote towards the system,” she mentioned.
Popping out of the polling station with a smile, she waved a pinky finger dipped in ink to mark that she had voted. “I really feel fortunate” to have participated, she mentioned.
The delayed vote was purported to have taken place in February. However days earlier than campaigning was set to start, Sall postponed the election for the primary time in Senegal’s historical past, accusing the constitutional judges tasked with drawing up the listing of candidates of corruption. Critics noticed it as a last-ditch effort by Sall to cling to energy.
However the Constitutional Council overruled the choice, ordering Sall to organise elections earlier than the top of his mandate on April 2.
So on March 24, 66 p.c of the seven million Senegalese eligible to vote went to the polls – a excessive turnout for a high-stakes election.
Arrested, then launched
On the Medina polling station in downtown Dakar, massive crowds gathered on the poll containers, some out of a want for justice, others out for revenge.
Sall’s 12 years in workplace had been overshadowed by the political turmoil of the ultimate few. In 2020, COVID-19 restrictions badly affected the casual financial system and other people’s livelihoods. The next yr, the tried arrest of opposition chief Ousmane Sonko ignited widespread anger in direction of the federal government, which was accused of ignoring the struggles of widespread individuals in favour of clamping down on political opponents.
Riots broke out, and the clashes turned lethal.
Scores of individuals have been killed and lots of injured by armed, masked males. The opposition and civil society noticed them as goons employed by the ruling get together, performing with impunity and paid to harm individuals.
From March 2021 to February this yr, hundreds of individuals have been arrested – amongst them Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
The previous tax inspector had taken to Fb to protest, writing a put up in February 2023 that accused magistrates of being within the pocket of the state whereas overlooking precise crimes. The authorities deemed the put up threatening to state safety and, subsequently, unlawful.
That April, Faye was arrested and despatched to jail, the place he stayed for 11 months earlier than being launched simply earlier than final month’s vote.
On the time of his arrest, Faye had been working for Sonko, additionally a tax inspector. They have been figureheads of the union of staff of the tax workplace upset with injustice and disparities on the tax division.
In 2014, Sonko, a firebrand with a tender tone and a pointy tongue, created the political get together PASTEF (African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity). The get together attracted center administration civil servants who felt annoyed and powerless as they watched their superiors steal cash and obtain kickbacks with impunity.
Sonko got here to fame by denouncing corruption in contracts for the profitable oil and fuel sector after pure fuel reserves have been found in 2014. In 2023, he was arrested on a number of prices, together with frightening riot, conspiring with “terrorist teams”, endangering state safety and immoral behaviour in direction of people youthful than 21.
Shortly after, the federal government banned his get together.
In 2018, Al Jazeera met Sonko in a small rented home overlooking a busy freeway. Through the interview, he lashed out on the authorities’s then-new legislation to manage social media.
Little did he know then that the legislation handed in 2018 could be used 5 years later to arrest his deputy and the longer term president of Senegal, Faye.
On March 6, 18 days earlier than the election, Sall handed an amnesty invoice accepted by parliament to launch and pardon all these concerned in crimes through the political violence that came about from 2021 to 2024.
Rights teams criticised the amnesty legislation, seeing it as a guise to guard the safety forces and employed males concerned in police brutality and the killing of protesters – crimes that may now now not be investigated and, subsequently, go unpunished.
However the amnesty additionally ensured the discharge of Sonko and Faye, who have been freed lower than two weeks earlier than the election, bringing their presidential marketing campaign to life.
The ruling get together candidate, Amadou Ba, could have had the assistance of dozens of PR corporations, however for a lot of Senegalese, his messaging appeared tone deaf to the aspirations of the younger majority, who desired change as an alternative of extra of the identical.
Ba annoyed the media by arriving late to his personal conferences or not displaying up in any respect. Regardless of being the ruling get together candidate, Sall additionally by no means appeared by his facet.
‘Diomaye is Sonko’
In the meantime, Faye and Sonko placed on a present. They crisscrossed the nation, surrounded by bodyguards holding again frenzied crowds of younger individuals eager to get a glimpse of the lads – as if the 2 have been rock stars and never former tax inspectors.
The crowds sang the anthem to their marketing campaign: “Sonko is Diomaye, and Diomaye is Sonko.”
Largely unknown to the general public, Faye was till then using the wave of Sonko’s recognition. However Faye stepped into the limelight.
Broom in hand, he promised “sweeping” change from a brand new foreign money and the renegotiating of oil and fuel contracts to altering Senegal’s relationship with France and the French language. Beneath Sall, critics seen Senegal’s authorities as a puppet to Western pursuits and one which put France’s pursuits above Senegal’s.
Faye promised he would put “Senegal first” and make the Senegalese his precedence.
Overwhelmingly funded by the Senegalese diaspora from Europe and North America, Faye and Sonko ran an American-style marketing campaign, campaigning as a duo “Diomaye Sonko” on a pan-African ticket. They crammed up stadiums and lit up the sky with fireworks.
The present paid off. Two hours after the polling closed, a landslide victory appeared sure. One after the opposite, candidates conceded defeat and congratulated Faye.
By Friday, the official closing outcomes have been confirmed. He had received 54 p.c of the votes.
‘Sweeping’ victory
From political prisoner to president in fewer than 20 days, Faye is now Africa’s youngest chief at 44.
For his supporters, Faye was not the one winner. Within the wake of the vote, individuals rushed to Sonko’s residence. Beneath a flyover resulting in Sonko’s home, the place police had manhandled individuals making an attempt to get to work in June, a victorious crowd gathered.
With horns blaring, younger males on the rooftops of SUVs waved the inexperienced, crimson and yellow flag of Senegal. Some approached the world with their households and youngsters. Supporters with brooms in hand swept the streets, a logo of what they seen as a sweeping victory.
However as soon as the mud settles, individuals will need to know who is definitely holding the broomstick.
When Sonko was barred from operating within the election due to his prison convictions, he selected Faye to face as a candidate in his place. “A rational selection made not from the guts,” Sonko mentioned in November on the time of his resolution when Faye was additionally in jail.
Humble beginnings
Launched on March 14 beneath Sall’s amnesty legislation, Faye will now settle into his presidential function. However his beginnings are far completely different from the elite he’s changing.
An hour-and-a-half drive from the capital is a protracted grime street resulting in Ndiaganiao, the village the place Faye was born and raised.
It was right here in 2022 that Senegal’s new president campaigned to grow to be the village mayor however misplaced.
“Overcoming adversity and failure made him successful,” his father, Samba Faye, informed Al Jazeera a day after the preliminary outcomes have been introduced.
The elder Faye lives in a modest cement residence in a sandy settlement. Blue plastic chairs have been stacked in a single nook, others strewn throughout the courtyard. Pots emptied of meals lay round after the earlier night time’s victory celebration.
Not removed from the house is a mosque, and close by within the sand, the ultimate resting place of Faye’s grandfather.
The household is recognised among the many villagers, and the newly elected president is a revered determine.
Faye’s grandfather fought as a part of the colonial French military towards Nazi Germany in World Warfare II. However after that, he introduced the battle residence and took on French colonial directors over the development of a district highschool, a battle that proved tougher than the trenches of battle as a result of the French colonists noticed educated Africans as a risk to their rule.
His persistence landed him in jail, however the college was ultimately constructed.
That is the place the longer term president went to high school, his father mentioned. And through his day without work, the younger man would assist his mom and sister plant cereal grains.
Samba Faye has been a lifelong member of Senegal’s Socialist Get together. His son grew up with left-leaning beliefs, his father mentioned.
“It’s simple to be pleased with your son now when he will get a lot recognition, however there was a whole lot of ache, a whole lot of exhausting work, to get the place he’s,” Samba Faye mentioned.
As Bassirou Diomaye Faye takes workplace on the presidential palace, in his shadow is his mentor Sonko. Tight associates, for now no less than, however what function will Sonko play? Particularly since Faye would doubtless have by no means received with out him.
Some see uncertainty forward. Others see hope for a brand new starting. However what is obvious is that there shall be change.
Earlier than the handover of energy, Sall met his successor. Sall, in a swimsuit and tie, shook the hand of president-elect Faye and opposition chief Sonko, each wearing conventional apparel.
To some it might simply be a logo, however to the Senegalese who voted for Faye, it’s a cataclysmic shift.
