SENEGAL
No Humdrum Affair
As the only West African country never to have suffered a military coup, Senegal is widely viewed as one of the region’s most successful democracies.
But that doesn’t mean the democratic process in the largely French-speaking West African nation is a humdrum affair.
As Senegalese voters head to the polls for legislative elections Sunday, they’re preparing for the climax of an unusual campaign season marked by outsized personalities.
A record number of candidates are running to weaken President Macky Sall and his Alliance for the Republic political party, wrote Agence France-Presse.
Sall and his party are the dominant forces behind Senegal’s ruling coalition United in Hope, which has held a majority in the country’s parliament since Sall first took office in 2012.
His opponents are hopeful that they can force Sall and his party into a coalition government that would serve as a precursor to presidential elections in 2019, added the French newswire.
Among the parties fielding candidates for parliament are the Socialists, who are led by the beleaguered mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall.
But it’s still questionable how much of an impact Mayor Sall – of no relation to President Sall – will have in the race. That’s because the leader of the Senegalese capital has been in jail since March on suspicion of embezzling nearly $2.9 million from Dakar’s coffers, wrote the BBC.
The country’s Supreme Court has rejected the popular mayor’s requests for bail, effectively preventing him from campaigning on behalf of his candidates.
Supporters of Mayor Sall claim the timing of his arrest is a ploy to weaken his challenge to President Sall.
But the mayor of Dakar isn’t the only obstacle President Sall faces in these elections, either.
Senegal’s 91-year-old former President Abdoulaye Wade recently returned to Senegal after spending years in exile in France to spearhead the list of candidates for his opposition Senegalese Democratic Party, wrote the Associated Press.
Wade has criticized Sall’s handling of the election process, prompting violent riots, Voice of America reported Thursday.
Wade left the country after his bid to win a third term in office failed in 2012 in the face of mounting criticism and protests that he was ceding an increasing amount of power to his son, Karim.
Critics maintain that Wade’s involvement in the election is a pretext to have the Democratic Party grant amnesty to his son, who served a six-year prison sentence on corruption charges before moving to Qatar. Karim might also run for president in 2019, added the AP.
Still, Wade’s return is widely considered to be crucial to the Democrats and the country’s numerous other opposition parties’ efforts to stymy President Sall, said AFP.
Still, most voters say elections are important for change.
Senegal is a poor country where fishing dominates the economy, followed by tourism and the agricultural sector. Many locals are hoping a new government will develop the major oil and gas finds off the coast to lift citizens’ economic prospects – the majority here live below the poverty line – and relieve the high unemployment rate, especially among youths.
Regardless of the outcome, be it colourful or messy, Senegal’s elections show a maturing democracy, and that’s something, wrote one former resident of the country.
“One of the key signs of a maturing democratic nation is the peaceful transition of federal power from the governing party to an opposition that has emerged victorious in free and fair elections,” wrote a former resident of Senegal in an opinion piece in Malaysia’s The Star news site.
“That may not seem like much but on each occasion, the ruling party has handed over power legally and graciously, thus strengthening the people’s faith in the meaning of their democracy.”
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