Less than a week after his release from prison, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the anti-establishment candidate from Senegal, looked on Monday as though he was on the verge of winning the presidency, but the ruling coalition claimed that a run-off vote would still be required.
The victor will have to navigate Senegal—which is seen as a model of democracy in coup-hit West Africa—through three years of instability and political turmoil in addition to handling the money from soon-to-be-produced oil and gas reserves.
The outcome of the historic vote is still up in the air, and final results are not anticipated until the end of the week. A first-round victory requires an absolute majority.
Have fun reviewing movies and drinks
Opposition figure Faye promised voters profound change and a presidential programme of left-wing pan-Africanism.
He appeared clearly ahead of the governing coalition’s former prime minister, Amadou Ba, according to provisional results from individual polling stations published by local media and on social networks.
Newspapers proclaimed Faye the winner on their front pages.
Faye, 44, and Ba, 62, — both former tax inspectors — had emerged as the favourites to win in a crowded pack of 17 candidates.
“It’s almost a certainty because from what we can see, from the figures that have just come in, I’m telling you that there won’t be a second round,” Serigne Aissanine, the youth coordinator of Faye’s coalition, said late Sunday.
Hundreds of Faye supporters gathered at his campaign headquarters in the capital Dakar, singing and dancing to the sound of klaxons and drums.
Young people on motorbikes paraded the streets chanting “to the (presidential) palace”.
Ba briefly appeared in front of his supporters during the night, saying he would give a “definitive” assessment around midday on Monday.
At least eight of the other presidential contenders congratulated Faye in light of initial indications from the ongoing vote count.
But Ba’s campaign said in a statement that according to its experts, it was “certain to be, in the worst-case scenario, in a second round”.
It also accused Faye’s camp of attempted “manipulation”.
“It is not inevitable that Senegal will slide into a populist adventure,” the statement added.
– ‘Embody change’ -A victory for Faye could herald a systemic overhaul in Senegal.
The anti-establishment figure has pledged to restore national “sovereignty”, fight corruption and distribute wealth more equitably.
He has also promised to renegotiate mining, gas and oil contracts signed with foreign companies, with Senegal due to start hydrocarbon production later this year.
“I remain confident about the choice for the change that I am able to embody better than any other candidate,” Faye said as he voted Sunday.
Ba pitched himself as the continuity candidate for outgoing President Macky Sall.
Both contenders presented themselves as the best candidate for young people in a country where half the population is under 20.
“I voted for Diomaye without thinking,” said Diaraaf Gaye, a 26-year-old shopkeeper.
“It’s time for the country to start on a new footing with young people” in power.
Amnesty
Senegal was originally due to vote on February 25, but an 11th-hour postponement by Sall triggered the worst political crisis in decades and violence that left four dead.
Around 7.3 million Senegalese were eligible to cast their ballot.
Hundreds of observers from civil society, the African Union, the ECOWAS regional group and the European Union were on hand.
The head of the EU observer mission, Malin Bjork, said voting had taken place “calmly, efficiently and (in a) very orderly manner”.
Opposition figurehead Ousmane Sonko — who was barred from standing due to a defamation conviction — said young people had “massively” turned out to vote.
“We are convinced that at the end of this day the victory will be dazzling,” Sonko said, referring to Faye, his deputy and endorsed candidate, while voting in his southern stronghold of Ziguinchor.
A quickly passed amnesty law allowed Sonko, who finished third in the 2019 presidential election, and Faye to be released from prison on March 14.
Following weeks of uncertainty, Sall was compelled to reschedule the vote from December to March 24 by Senegal’s highest constitutional court, which overruled his request to postpone it until then. This resulted in a hurried campaign that coincided with the Muslim month of Ramadan.
Sall’s hand-picked successor, Ba, would take over his legacy of mass arrests, ongoing poverty, 20 percent unemployment, and thousands of refugees perilously traveling to Europe every year.
Since 2021, a number of unrest occurrences that were partially caused by a standoff between Sonko and the state have resulted in hundreds of arrests and scores of fatalities.
