The presidential candidates in Senegal gathered crowds of supporters on Friday for their last meetings before Sunday's vote, marking the end of an express but peaceful campaign compared to the months of tension which preceded this unprecedented election.
Two candidates stand out
Amadou Ba and Bassirou Diomaye Faye in particular, considered the two main competitors in perhaps the most open election in the history of independent Senegal, lent themselves to a final show of force before the end of the campaign on Friday in midnight.
“I am committed to being a President of the Republic of all Senegalese” and “to fighting against hyper-presidentialism”, launched Bassirou Diomaye Faye in front of thousands of supporters gathered in a stadium in Mbour.
He also declared himself "ready" to "continue our partnership with our international partners on a win-win basis" and to "strengthen relations with our brother countries in the Sahel and work for their return to ECOWAS", the Community economy of West African States.
Aged 43, this anti-system candidate, whose victory would announce the possible calling into question of an established model, received last minute and weighty support on Friday with the appeal launched in his favor by Karim Wade, disqualified candidate from the historic Senegalese Democratic Party.
In front of hundreds of supporters gathered on the Place de la Nation in Dakar, Amadou Ba declared for his part that he wanted to be “the president of the Republic of Youth”.
“We will create at least one million jobs,” he said.
Undecided vote
More than seven million Senegalese are called on Sunday to elect their fifth president in a vote that is completely undecided, and exceptional in many respects.
Macky Sall, outgoing president in charge for 12 years and largely re-elected in 2019, is not running for re-election.
Senegalese were originally scheduled to vote on February 25, but a last-minute postponement caused unrest and several weeks of confusion that tested Senegal's democratic practice.
The campaign was shortened from three to two weeks.
Eighteen men and one woman, two of whom announced their withdrawal at the end of the race in favor of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, spent long days in crowds under the sun without drinking or eating due to the postponement of the election and its holding in the middle of the Muslim fasting month.
A probable second round
Amadou Ba and Bassirou Diomaye Faye are given favorites, even if the publication of polls is prohibited.
A second round, the date of which has not been set, seems likely.
Provisional results could be known as early as Sunday night.
“We know that these are the two who will come out (of the polls) if there is no tsunami,” said El Hadji Mamadou Mbaye, professor and researcher at the University of Saint-Louis.
“The issue is who will be third and how they will position themselves,” he said.
He mentions the names of the former mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall, and Aliou Mamadou Dia, leader of the Unity and Rally Party.
The expert draws attention to the divisions of the opposition in the event of a second round against the candidate of power.
An “earthquake” in the event of Faye’s victory
A victory for Bassirou Diomaye Faye would represent a political “earthquake” with the advent of a new generation and “the arrival of an actor who does not come from the system”, specifies the expert, although he served the senior civil service.
The election is being followed more closely abroad than it would be in other developing countries.
With 18 million inhabitants, Senegal is one of the most stable countries in West Africa shaken by coups d'état.
He maintained strong relations with the West.
However, Senegal has experienced various episodes of unrest since 2021.
Dozens of people were killed and hundreds arrested, damaging the country's image, unfairly according to the government.
Will for reconciliation
Ousmane Sonko, leader of the opposition and actor in a long standoff with power, was disqualified from the presidential election.
Released a week ago, he put himself at the service of his second Bassirou Diomaye Faye, presented by his camp as the “candidate for system change”, of recovered sovereignty and “left-wing Pan-Africanism”.
Facing him, Amadou Ba, 62, stands as a bulwark against the “adventurers”.
He promises to continue the momentum driven, according to him, by President Sall and his ambitious development program.
He must also take responsibility for his record: persistent poverty, high unemployment, heavy debt, and hundreds of arrests.
The thirst for appeasement “will play a big role.
We are coming out of a very tense period.
All the candidates present themselves as the one who will reconcile the Senegalese,” says Sidy Diop, deputy editorial director of the daily “Le Soleil”.
The release of political opponents and hundreds of other detainees as well as an amnesty law contributed to a campaign without notable incident.
It was also not very programmatic, says teacher-researcher Mbaye.
“People don’t vote for programs;
This election is a meeting between a personality and a people.”