Some arrived in the morning. Mostly due to fasting, Ramadan, there are now about three hundred queues in the schoolyard of Adja Warath Dyne, in the community of Guele Tapi Fas-Koloben, one of the districts south of Dakar. Everyone waits their turn in religious silence and under the watchful eye of about ten uniformed police officers. Soldiers stand guard inside classrooms converted into polling booths. On Sunday, March 24, 7.3 million Senegalese are called to elect their president, including 707,800 in the Senegalese capital, the country’s main electoral region.
Initially scheduled for February 25, then postponed by the head of state, Mackie Sale, before being rescheduled several times, the election is unprecedented in more ways than one. For the first time since the country’s independence in 1960, the outgoing president is not a candidate for his own succession. And with nineteen candidates selected by the Constitutional Council — two of whom withdrew in recent days but still appear on the ballot — the election is exceptionally open.
“We need a radical break”
In the popular area of Gueule Tapée, many voters express their desire for change. For him, the fifth president is the face, from the main opposition current, party of African Patriots of Senegal, Work, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF), dissolved in July 2023. with their sovereignist and pan-Africanist discourse. And his attacks on elites, CFA francs and multinationals contrast his position with the continuity advocated by Amadou Ba, a candidate for power, former prime minister and Macki Saul’s heir.
“In Senegal, unless you know someone well, you have no chance of occupying certain positions even if you have a diploma. Mackie Saul’s rule has not changed our lives. We need a radical break”, argues Sandrine Angela Boissy, a thirty-year-old executive assistant who has been unemployed for four years. He will vote for Basirou Dimaye Faye.
Released from prison thanks to the amnesty law a week after the start of a short campaign, the former Pastef candidate is riding on the huge popularity of his party boss, Osman Sonko, who is barred from the election after being convicted. Traditionally popular among under-20s, who represent half the population, Basirou Diomay Faye, 44, may also appeal to parents worried about mass unemployment – estimated at 20%.
You have 58.83% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
