The Facts
Senegal will hold elections on Sunday (Mar. 24) to choose a new president. Voters will choose from amongst 19 candidates approved by the Constitutional Council, Senegal’s top court. President Macky Sall, whose tenure will end on April 2, is not on the ballot having served two terms.
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Why is the election being held now? Initially scheduled for Feb. 25, the polls were postponed three weeks earlier by Sall in a controversial decision that cited irregularities with the court’s approved candidates. It sparked a month of tensions and some violence in Senegal, after which Sall reversed course on March 6 and scheduled the polls for the current date.
Who are the contestants? Amadou Ba, 62, the immediate past prime minister in Sall’s cabinet, will run on the platform of the Alliance for the Republic party. Two other former prime ministers Idrissa Seck and Mahammed Dionne (both 64 years old) are in the race too, as is Khalifa Sall, a 68-year-old former mayor of Senegal’s capital city Dakar who is no relation to the president. Anta Babacar Ngom, a 40-year-old entrepreneur, is the only woman on the ballot.
Have there been any other key players for this election? Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44, will be the candidate of a party formed by the opposition figure Ousmane Sonko. A former tax chief, Sonko contested the last elections in 2019 and has been the best known critic of the Sall administration since. Charged and jailed last year by the government for allegedly stirring insurrection, he and Faye were released from prison this month as part of an amnesty Sall proposed in February.
What are the stakes? Last month’s furore over Sall’s postponement raised questions about the state and future of democracy in Senegal, as the prospect of his continued stay in office beyond April 2 threatened to trigger a constitutional crisis. The West African nation has long been seen as an example of stability in an often turbulent region. It has never suffered a military coup, even as several of its neighbors have recently been taken over by military juntas.
Successfully holding the elections will represent another milestone for the country as citizens are “now more aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their democracy,” says Boubacar Boris Diop, a Dakar-based journalist and novelist. But fearing the prospect of violence where the results are contested, he cautions against celebrating too early: “there could well be more trouble ahead.”
How will a winner emerge? A candidate who wins 50% or more of the vote in the first round will be named president. If not, a second round of voting will be held between the top two candidates from the first round.
