Let's take a look at the four main candidates

Publication of: 2024/03/22 – 17:06

5 minutes

The fast-paced election campaign between Senegal's 17 presidential candidates is nearing its end. For just two weeks, they have been persuading voters to support them at polling stations on Sunday.

The unusual election campaign was interrupted by the political crisis that began on February 3, when Mr Sall called off elections scheduled for February 25. Senegalese lawmakers voted to postpone the vote until December 15, but the Constitutional Council invalidated the cancellation and postponement. They then forced the monkey to set a new date.

read moreHow Senegal's presidential election was postponed, revived and brought forward

Mr Sall is nearing the end of his second term (2012-2024) as head of one of West Africa's most stable countries. The constitution does not allow him to run for a third term.

Senegal's presidential candidates began campaigning on March 9, two days after the council confirmed the March 24 vote. The 17 candidates have increased their travel and public meetings in recent days to raise their profile and present their ideas on issues such as sovereignty, civil liberties, immigration, schools, unemployment and the fishing crisis. .

The main proposals of the four main candidates are as follows.

• Mr. Amadou Ba, continuation candidate

Prime Minister Amadou Ba, 62, is the ruling party's candidate and is seen as the likely successor to Sall. Ba, a former economy and finance minister and then foreign minister, claims to be a candidate for continuity and stability in the incumbent's economic performance, while also pledging a return to calm after months of political crisis. .

Mr Ba focused his campaign program on employment for the country's young people, where three-quarters of the population is under 35. His main pledge was to create 1 million jobs by 2028 through public-private partnerships and investments in agriculture, industry, infrastructure and renewable energy.

He also called for renewing “treaties and contracts concluded by the State of Senegal in the field of natural resources,” providing minimum financial allowances for the elderly, and accelerating the construction of a national school of arts, crafts and culture. There is.

• Basil Diomai Faye, opposition candidate

Basilou Diomai Faye, 44, who replaced opposition leader Ousmane Sonko who was excluded from January's presidential election, has even less time to campaign in person than other candidates. The co-founder of the opposition Pastef party, who was released along with Sonko on March 14, is campaigning against the country's political class to restore Senegal's “sovereignty,” a term used 18 times in his election manifesto. I promise.

To that end, Fay proposes abolishing the CFA franc, which has been inherited from the colonial era, and introducing a new currency, and spreading English education in countries where French is the official language. He has also said he wants to renegotiate defense deals as well as mining and hydrocarbon contracts.

The Pastev platform also aims to reform the system, including creating the role of vice president and safeguards to check the president's powers, including the possibility of removal from office.

• Idrissa Sek, veteran candidate

Former Prime Minister Idrissa Sek, who served under former President Abdullahi Wade from 2002 to 2004, is running for four consecutive terms. The 64-year-old former Sal opponent has long maintained uncertainty over his eventual candidacy, but he used his political experience and knowledge of the inner workings of government to win support from voters.

Among his top proposals are compulsory military service, the creation of a common currency for West African countries, and the establishment of a fund financed by oil and gas companies to compensate for damage to fisheries.

The founder of Senegal's Leumi party also proposes that 60 percent of public investment go to regions outside the Dakar region.

• Khalifa Salle, candidate for return

Khalifa Sall (no relation to the outgoing president) is another Senegalese political figure trying his luck in the election. Sentenced in 2018 to five years in prison and a five million CFA franc fine for fraud and embezzlement of public funds, the Tasau-Senegalese coalition leader was banned from participating in the 2019 presidential election. Macky Sall's rival returned to politics thanks to a presidential pardon and a law allowing restoration of civil rights for pardoned convicts following a national dialogue launched by the government in May 2023 did.

In this election, 68-year-old Sall is presenting himself as a candidate who can heal a “wounded” country. The man who sees himself as the heir to Senegal's Socialist Party has promised that he will hold a citizen-led referendum. He also pledged to allocate at least 1 trillion CFA francs (1.5 billion euros) of the annual national budget to agriculture.

Sall's foreign policy program aims to “diversify and rebalance” diplomatic and economic partnerships by “strengthening[global]South-South cooperation and cooperation with emerging countries.”

This article is a translation of the French original.