Early outcomes from Sunday’s presidential elections in Senegal present opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye is within the lead, prompting his supporters to have a good time on the streets of the capital Dakar amid hope the brand new administration will tackle persistent poverty and corruption.
The governing coalition’s candidate, former Prime Minister Amadou Ba, on Monday conceded defeat to Faye hours after saying he was prepared for a run-off vote. A candidate requires greater than 50 p.c of votes to forestall a run-off.
The electoral physique has but to launch particulars concerning the outcomes as vote counting is underneath method. Official outcomes are anticipated to be introduced within the coming days.
Right here is extra about presidential candidate Faye and what the outcomes would imply for the way forward for Senegal’s democracy.
Who’s Bassirou Diomaye Faye?
Faye has been thrust into the centre of Senegalese politics greater than every week after he was launched from jail alongside together with his firebrand mentor Ousmane Sonko, who was disqualified from standing within the election due to a defamation conviction.
The 44-year-old chief contested the elections as an unbiased as a result of dissolution of his Patriots of Senegal (PASTEF) get together final July for inflicting unrest. The PASTEF get together, which was based by Sonko in 2014, endorsed Faye.
The left-wing populist has been organising protests in opposition to President Macky Sall accusing his authorities of corruption and failing to handle persistent poverty. Sall’s resolution to increase the elections initially scheduled for February triggered the most recent spherical of political disaster.
The elections have been held after the intervention of the Constitutional Court docket.
Faye was born in 1980 in west-central Senegal’s Ndiaganiao. He met Sonko whereas working as a tax inspector on the Taxes and Estates division, the place they have been instrumental within the formation of a union.
Why was Faye in jail?
In April 2023, Faye was arrested on expenses together with spreading false information, contempt of court docket and defamation of a constituted physique, for a social media put up.
Sonko was arrested on a number of expenses in July 2023 together with frightening riot, conspiring with “terrorist” teams, endangering state safety and immoral behaviour in direction of people youthful than 21.
Faye, alongside Sonko, was launched late on March 14, days earlier than the vote, after an amnesty legislation was handed this month.
What are his insurance policies?
Faye, a former tax inspector, has pledged to weed out corruption, restore stability and prioritise financial sovereignty, interesting to the city youth pissed off by unemployment within the West African nation the place 60 p.c of the inhabitants is underneath 25.
He desires to rid Senegal of the CFA franc inherited from the colonial period, which is pegged to the euro. He proposes introducing a brand new forex as an alternative. The CFA franc, backed by the French treasury, is accepted in 14 member nations.
Moreover, he needs to renegotiate mining and hydrocarbon contracts. The nation is predicted to start out hydrocarbon manufacturing this yr.
The most important problem for the brand new chief could be to handle the greater than 20 p.c unemployment charge.
“It’s an injustice that I can’t discover work. I used to be given a state diploma and the state can’t discover work for me,” Yacoub Diouf from Senegal instructed Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque.
Who’re the opposite candidates within the fray?
Nineteen candidates are within the fray to interchange outgoing President Sall, who has been in energy since 2012. Sall’s second time period was marred by political unrest over the prosecution of Sonko.
The second-place Amadou Ba was backed by Sall. Victory for Ba, 62, would have meant a continuation of the earlier authorities’s coverage.
Different candidates embrace former Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, who dubbed himself the “president of reconciliation”, and the two-time mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall, who’s operating for the fourth time and has already congratulated Faye.
Al Jazeera’s Haque reported that ladies who contribute largely to the nation’s tertiary trade are a major voter demographic. Nevertheless, the one feminine candidate was entrepreneur and political newcomer Anta Babacar Ngom, who runs Senegal’s largest poultry firm. Ngom has already wished Faye success because the chief of Senegal in an X put up.
In July 2023, Sall introduced that he wouldn’t contest the election for a 3rd time period following deep political unrest, iterating that Senegal’s structure would have allowed him to. Sonko had referred to as for Sall to bow out of this election, accusing him of cracking down on the opposition to sideline competitors. Sall was topic to additional controversy after he delayed the election that was initially set for February 25.
Time period limits have been a hotly debated matter in Senegal for the previous 20 years. When former President Abdoulaye Wade got here to energy in 2000, the structure didn’t have time period limits. Wade amended it in 2001 to impose a two-term restrict. Nevertheless, to increase his personal time in workplace, Wade efficiently campaigned for a 3rd time period, incomes the approval of Senegal’s highest court docket.
At the least seven of the 19 candidates within the race have issued statements congratulating Faye on his win.
Round 71 p.c of the 7.3 million registered voters confirmed as much as the polls, in line with state tv RTS.
On Tuesday, last provisional outcomes are anticipated. Official outcomes could also be introduced by Friday.
What might the outcomes imply for the way forward for Senegal’s democracy?
A victory for Faye is an effective signal for democracy in Senegal, mentioned Alioune Tine, founding father of the think-tank Afrikajom Middle and Amnesty Worldwide’s former regional director for West and Central Africa.
“Democracy was sick with political violence, with state violence, with demise,” Tine instructed Al Jazeera, referring to the political violence of the previous few years. He added that Sonko being unable to contest elections additional confirmed that democracy was sick.
“However he [Sonko] had the sensible concept of nominating his quantity two to be a candidate,” he mentioned.
Tine added {that a} optimistic facet of Senegal’s democracy is that since independence, it has by no means allowed a army coup, not like different West African nations the place political crises quantity to coups.
