Senegal gives a lesson in democratic maturity with the peaceful rise to power of the opponent Faye

The until now opposition leader Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44, takes office this Tuesday as the new president of Senegal after winning the elections on March 24 by a wide margin. In the middle of an Africa shaken by terrible wars, such as those in Sudan, Congo or the Sahel, and plunged into a decline in freedoms with the recent wave of coups d'état, small Senegal, with 18 million inhabitants, has given a new lesson in democratic maturity. When the most doomsayers predicted a military coup or even an armed conflict, free and transparent elections and the quick recognition of his defeat by the government candidate, Amadou Ba, were enough to return to calm. Citizen mobilization and international pressure were key to the peaceful resolution of the crisis.

The turbulence began in March 2021, after the first arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, which sparked a week of intense protests. “President Macky Sall wanted to eliminate the most serious rival he had, the one who could prevent him from a third term. But he was met with a strong popular response,” recalls Aminata Touré, Sall's former prime minister and later one of his fiercest opponents. “The outgoing president never thought about leaving power, he wanted to follow the model of Alassane Ouattara in Ivory Coast. He never prepared anyone to succeed him,” agrees writer Boubacar Boris Diop.

During the following three years, freedoms suffered an enormous setback. “The regime resisted and rearmed,” adds Touré. Sonko's exclusion from the presidential race due to his judicial convictions further fueled the protests, until Sall announced his resignation from continuing. “He did it because of popular pressure, he knew that if he opted for a third term he would lead the country to chaos,” says Babacar Fall, a member of the Aar Sunu Election platform (Protect our elections, in Wolof, the national language). Meanwhile, the opposition movement continued to gain ground on the streets and the choice of Faye as Sonko's replacement candidate ended up working.

A final attempt by Sall in early February to delay the elections and buy time was rejected by the Constitutional Council. “I do not share this excessive admiration for the Constitutional Court,” comments Diop, however. “During all these years of repression he has been absent or has declared himself incompetent. It was citizen surveillance and popular pressure that ended up tipping the balance, the Constitutional judges knew that everyone was watching them and they only stood in front of Sall when he was already fragile, when he was about to leave," adds the writer. .

They all agree that, in addition to the citizen protests, what ended up tipping the balance towards holding the elections on March 24 was the firm position of the international community. “He played a very important role. A few days after Sall's decision to postpone them, Antony Blinken (head of US diplomacy) warned him by phone of his mistake and the European Union also took a position against it,” comments Diop. “Neither the citizens nor the international community saw favorably the suspension of the elections, this brutal destruction of the electoral process,” explains Fall.

First round victory

But Diomaye Faye's victory in the first round with 54% of the votes, compared to 35% for his rival, is the result of both the opposition's push and errors in the presidential field, according to experts. Among them stands out the fact that Sall sent confusing signals regarding support for his own coalition, which did not even manage to generate the necessary unanimity in his own coalition. “The truth is that I was surprised, I expected there to be a second round and that we would experience scenes of chaos,” says Boris Diop. For his part, Babacar Fall assures that he was aware that Senegal was facing elections that had become, in reality, a referendum and that there were “clear signs” of “the fundamental need for change” that citizens were asking for.

It is not the first alternation that Senegal has experienced. It already happened in 2000 with the election of Abdoulaye Wade as president and in 2012 with the victory of Macky Sall. But it is one thing to conquer power and quite another to manage a country. In his first and only intervention after his overwhelming electoral victory, in front of more than a hundred journalists, President Faye announced his intentions. “The Senegalese have chosen rupture. “Now we have to give substance to the enormous hope that our society project has generated,” he announced. Specifically, he referred to some of what will be the axes of his presidency: fighting corruption, refounding institutions, consolidating regional integration and turning the page on the crisis, reconciling the country.

“The Senegalese have shown their intelligence,” says Touré. “If Diomaye Faye offers good signs, they will accompany him. The results will not be seen in six months, but if she is committed to transparency, the independence of justice and reducing the powers of the president it will mean that he is on the right path. Diop asks for understanding: “A few months ago not even he could imagine that he would be president. His first decision was to resign from all of his positions in the party, that is already a good sign. We must remoralize political life, reduce hyperpresidentialism and improve governance. Of course, no president will be as closely watched as this one and there will be mistakes, but I share the hope of positive change.”

Activist Babacar Fall believes that Senegal's image is strengthened by the crisis and believes that youth employment should be one of the priorities, which will allow, in the medium term, to reduce irregular emigration. “People leave because they are desperate, because it is impossible for them to find a decent job. Sall failed in this endeavor. The solutions are not going to arrive overnight, but we must get to work now, create opportunities, support entrepreneurs. We have gas, oil, water, sun, arable land. Let us improve governance, the rule of law and generate the conducive economic environment,” he comments.

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