AFRICA/SENEGAL - Presidential elections: while awaiting official data, the Senegalese press affirms the victory of opponent Bassirou Diomaye Faye

Dakar (Agenzia Fides) - The result is not yet official but the Senegalese press considers as certain the victory in the first round of the presidential elections of the opponent Bassirou Diomaye Faye. The vote took place peacefully yesterday, Sunday, March 24, after weeks of tension and incidents following the decision announced on February 3 by outgoing President Macky Sall to postpone the elections sine die (see Fides, 5/2/2024). However, a ruling from the Constitutional Court annulled the presidential decree postponing the elections, calling on "the competent authorities to organize them as soon as possible" (see Fides, 16/2/2024). The political forces then agreed on the date of 24 March. Bassirou Diomaye Faye, benefiting from an amnesty law, was released from eleven months of imprisonment ten days before the elections, at the same time as the leader of the dissolved party, Ousmane Sonko. Like Sonko, Faye embodies the aspiration for change of young people who expect concrete improvements on the economic level, in a country marked by a high unemployment rate. All the other candidates congratulated Faye on his election, with the exception of Amadou Ba, the outgoing Prime Minister, who ran for Sall's party and did not run again. On the eve of the election, the Episcopal Commission "Justice and Peace" of Senegal had drawn up the "10 commandments of the voter" to guide voters in their choice. These commandments are: “You shall vote according to your conscience”; “You will respect the choice of other citizens”; “You will seek to know each of the candidates to the best of your ability by verifying whether they are honest, fair, competent, capable of governing the nation for the good of all”; “You will seek to know the solutions that each candidate intends to provide to resolve the problems of the Senegalese”; “You will not sell your vote for a bag of rice or sugar or for money”; “You shall not choose candidates who call for violence or who threaten others”; “You shall not elect corruptible, corrupt or corrupting candidates”; “You shall not choose a candidate solely on the basis of religion, ethnicity, family affiliation or popularity”; “You will choose the candidate who most respects moral values”; “You will choose the candidate who loves his country the most and who is determined to serve and not to be served.” (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 25/3/2024)

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