After a political disaster with many twists and turns, Senegalese voters go to the polls on Sunday to decide on their new president. Seventeen contenders are hoping to succeed President Macky Sall. FRANCE 24 examines the political backgrounds and essential proposals of 4 candidates: Amadou Ba, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Idrissa Seck and Khalifa Sall.
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A quick-paced electoral marketing campaign is coming to an finish for 17 Senegalese presidential candidates. Over just two weeks, they have been striving to persuade voters to help them on the polls on Sunday.
This extraordinary marketing campaign was cut short by the political crisis that started on February 3, when Sall cancelled the election that had been scheduled for February 25. Senegalese lawmakers voted to postpone the vote to December 15, however the Constitutional Council voided the cancellation and the postponement and compelled Sall to set a brand new date.
Learn extraHow Senegal’s presidential election was postponed, reinstated and moved up
Sall is nearing the top of two phrases (2012-2024) on the head of one among West Africa’s most steady international locations. The structure would not permit him to run for a 3rd mandate.
On March 9, two days after the council confirmed the March 24 vote, Senegal’s presidential candidates launched their campaigns. The 17 hopefuls have elevated their journeys and public conferences over the previous few days to spice up visibility and current their concepts on points together with sovereignty, civil liberties, emigration, faculties, unemployment and a fishing business disaster.
Right here’s a have a look at the 4 essential candidates’ key proposals:
- Amadou Ba, the continuity candidate
Prime Minister Amadou Ba, 62, is a ruling social gathering candidate and Sall’s most well-liked successor. The previous minister of financial system and finance after which overseas affairs, Ba presents himself as a candidate for stability and the continuity of the incumbent’s financial file, whereas additionally promising a return to calm after months of political disaster.
Ba centered his marketing campaign programme on youth employment in a rustic the place three-quarters of the inhabitants is beneath 35. His key promise: to create 1 million jobs by 2028 by way of public/personal partnerships and funding in agriculture, business, infrastructure and renewable energies.
He additionally requires updating “conventions and contracts signed by the state of Senegal within the area of pure sources”, offering a minimal monetary allowance to the aged and accelerating the development of a nationwide college of cultural arts and crafts.
- Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the anti-system candidate
Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44, a substitute for opposition chief Ousmane Sonko who was excluded from the presidential race in January, has had even much less time than different candidates to marketing campaign in particular person. The cofounder of the opposition Pastef social gathering, who was released from prison together with Sonko on March 14, is campaigning in opposition to the nation’s political class and guarantees to reclaim Senegal’s “sovereignty”, a time period used 18 occasions in his electoral platform.
To this finish, Faye proposes eliminating the CFA franc inherited from the colonial period to introduce a brand new forex, and to make the educating of English widespread in a rustic the place the official language is French. He additionally says he needs to renegotiate mining and hydrocarbon contracts in addition to defence agreements.
The Pastef platform additionally goals for institutional reform with the creation of the position of vice chairman and safeguards to verify the facility of the president, together with potential removing from workplace.
- Idrissa Seck, the veteran candidate
Former prime minister Idrissa Seck, who served beneath ex-president Abdoulaye Wade between 2002 and 2004, is working in a fourth consecutive presidential race. The 64-year-old former Sall opponent, who lengthy maintained the suspense surrounding his eventual candidacy, has put his political expertise and data of the interior workings of presidency to make use of in his bid to win over voters.
Amongst his signature proposals are obligatory navy service, the creation of a typical forex for West African international locations and a fund financed by oil and fuel corporations to compensate for injury to the fishing business.
The founding father of Senegal’s Rewmi social gathering additionally proposes to dedicate 60 % of public funding to areas exterior the Dakar area.
- Khalifa Sall, the comeback candidate
Khalifa Sall (no relation to the outgoing president) is one other Senegalese political heavyweight attempting his luck within the race. Sentenced to 5 years in jail and a tremendous of 5 million CFA francs for fraud and embezzlement of public funds in 2018, the chief of the Taxawu Senegal coalition was barred from getting into the 2019 presidential contest. Macky Sall’s rival has since returned to politics because of a presidential pardon and a regulation authorising the restoration of civil rights for convicted individuals who had been amnestied following a national dialogue initiated by the federal government in Could 2023.
On this election, the 68-year-old Sall is presenting himself because the candidate to heal a “broken” nation. The person who sees himself because the inheritor to Senegal’s socialist social gathering guarantees to institute a citizen-initiated referendum. He additionally pledges to dedicate a minimum of 1,000 billion CFA francs (1.5 billion euros) of the annual nationwide finances to agriculture.
Sall’s overseas coverage programme goals to “diversify and rebalance” diplomatic and financial partnerships by “strengthening (world) south-south cooperation and cooperation with rising international locations”.
This text is a translation of the original in French.
The 17 candidates in Senegal’s presidential election
Anta Babacar Ngom
Amadou Ba
Boubacar Camara
Déthié Fall
Daouda Ndiaye
Khalifa Sall
Idrissa Seck
Mame Boye Diao
Mouhamed Boun Abdallah Dionne
Aliou Mamadou Dia
Malick Gackou
Aly Ngouille Ndiaye
Mamadou Lamine Diallo
Serigne Mboup
Pape Djibril Fall
Bassirou Diomaye Faye
Thierno Allassane Sall