It’s a crowded subject of 17 within the battle for Senegal’s prime job, however two males – just lately freed opposition politician Bassirou Diomaye Faye and the ruling celebration’s inheritor obvious Amadou Ba – look most probably to win over voters in Sunday’s presidential election.
Their rivalry underpins an enormous divide and conflict of outlook within the nation, often considered a beacon of democracy in West Africa, particularly over its relationship with France, the previous colonial energy.
The ballot is a rushed job – the date was introduced with lower than three weeks’ discover, following a month of confusion and violent protests.
What appears to unite most Senegalese is the anger directed at outgoing President Macky Sall who tried to postpone the election – initially scheduled for 25 February – till December.
Mr Sall has instructed the BBC he acted to guard the integrity of the vote after allegations of corruption and disputes over the eligibility of some presidential candidates.
Nevertheless, critics accused him of looking for to increase his time period in workplace or cease the clock to raised put together his candidate – which he denies.
It led to political turmoil, the intervention of the Constitutional Courtroom, the president agreeing to go away workplace subsequent month when his time period formally ends, and a brand new election date.
Then final week, a few of his fiercest critics – these concerned in political protests over the previous few years – have been freed in a presidential amnesty as a way to calm tensions.
This included firebrand opposition chief Ousmane Sonko, who got here third within the final election and is vastly common with younger individuals looking forward to change.
However the 49-year-old is barred from working as a candidate this time, on account of a sequence of expenses he says have been politically motivated.
As an alternative, he’s throwing his appreciable clout behind Mr Faye, who like him is a former tax inspector and was launched from detention on the identical time – he was awaiting trial on expenses of defamation and spreading pretend information.
The 2 met whereas working on the tax workplace and Mr Faye, who turns 44 the day after the election, was beforehand secretary-general of Mr Sonko’s Pastef celebration, which was dissolved by the federal government final yr over allegations it had known as for an revolt.
Their slogan “Sonko is Diomaye, Diomaye is Sonko” has gone viral on social media within the final week.
The pair – greeted on their launch by celebrating crowds – are pushing their anti-establishment imaginative and prescient for institutional reforms. It’s an Afrocentric and nationalist agenda, together with plans to renegotiate the nation’s mining and vitality contracts.
Mr Faye additionally desires Senegal to cease utilizing the CFA franc – the West African single foreign money that’s pegged to the euro, with the monetary backing of the French treasury, and which is regarded by his supporters as a relic of the colonial period.
The proposal has been labelled as irresponsible by his opponents, though Mr Sonko has sought to quell such fears by saying they’d search to reform the regional foreign money first and solely think about introducing a nationwide foreign money if that ought to fail.
In distinction to this radical path, Mr Ba, prime minister till he resigned to contest the election, seeks to characterize continuity and stability.
At his rallies, the 62-year-old has hit out on the former Pastef pair, labelling them “bandits” and saying a vote for him is a vote for “better peace and prosperity”.
He argues his ministerial monitor file proves he’ll oversee improvement and create a million jobs in 5 years – because the staid statesman woos the youth vote.
Mr Ba might have been on the political scene for the final decade, however he’s a little bit of a closed guide for many. He has tried to open up as a person of the individuals, revealing his love for reggae music and Bob Marley.
With greater than half of Senegal’s inhabitants underneath the age of 25 and rising frustration over unemployment and boats stuffed with migrants heading for Europe, it is a vital demographic.
Arame Gueye Sene, government director of the youth group Social Change Manufacturing unit, instructed the BBC that younger individuals have been engaged in marketing campaign points, though the vast majority of the seven million registered voters have been aged 35 and over.
“We see them on the streets, however we’re unsure that quite a lot of them are in a position to vote subsequent Sunday,” she stated.
A major problem for all candidates has been that the postponed election has fallen in the course of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
In Senegal, 95% of the inhabitants is Muslim and consequently key cities just like the capital, Dakar, and Thiès are unusually quiet for an election marketing campaign.
Individuals have a tendency to avoid wasting their vitality till they break their quick at sundown, which means candidates are having to rethink their marketing campaign methods.
Booklets detailing proposed insurance policies have been shared on-line, in addition to stay recordings of rallies.
“We have now to double efforts to mobilise voters,” Anta Babacar Ngom, a enterprise government and the one girl on this race, instructed the BBC.
Candidates are nonetheless making an effort to tour the nation – as Mohamed Ly, a member of Khalifa Sall‘s marketing campaign staff, stated that undecided voters might show key.
Mr Sall, the 68-year-old former mayor of Dakar and no relation to the president, is considered one of two candidates who might show a kingmaker or push the vote right into a second spherical. To win outright, a contender should get hold of greater than 50% of the vote.
The opposite such candidate is Idrissa Seck, the 64-year-old former mayor of Thiès. Each have loyal followings.
One other influential participant is Karim Wade. The 55-year-old is the son of ex-President Abdoulaye Wade, although his candidacy was rejected as he had not renounced his French citizenship in time – electoral legal guidelines don’t permit for twin nationality.
His Senegalese Democratic Occasion (PDS) has historically benefitted from the help of the Mourides, probably the most influential Muslim brotherhood in Senegal. On Friday, it introduced that it will again Mr Faye – a transfer that would show decisive.
A lot of the citizens might really feel bruised by the upheaval of the final month however electoral directorate head Birame Sene is assured they don’t have anything to fret about.
He instructed the BBC every part was so as and nicely ready for Sunday’s vote – when Senegal’s much-vaunted democratic values might be put to the check.
