Leftist Bashir Diomai Fay will become Senegal's youngest president on Tuesday, pledging reforms to build on his stunning electoral victory just 10 days after his release from prison.
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The 44-year-old Pan-Africanist has never held elected office, but the ceremony in Diamniadio, a new city on the outskirts of the capital Dakar, was attended by African leaders, including Nigeria's Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Several leaders are expected to attend.
The formal handover of power to President Macky Sall will then take place at the presidential palace in Dakar.
Fay was among a group of political opponents released 10 days before the March 24 presidential vote in an amnesty announced by Sall, who had tried to delay the vote.
Fay's campaign began while he was still in custody.
The former tax inspector will become the West African state's fifth president since independence from France in 1960, and the first to openly admit polygamy.
Working with populist leader Ousmane Sonko, who was barred from the election, Fay declared national reconciliation, easing the cost-of-living crisis and fighting corruption as priorities in his victory speech.
Opposition leaders have vowed to restore national sovereignty over key assets such as the oil, gas and fishing sectors.
Fay wants to leave behind the regional CFA franc, which he sees as a legacy of the French colonial era, and increase investment in agriculture with the aim of achieving food self-sufficiency.
But he also sought to reassure investors that Senegal “remains a friend, a reliable and reliable ally for partners in good, respectful and mutually productive cooperation.” I tried.
After three years of tension and deadly uncertainty in this traditionally stable country, his victory for democracy was celebrated from Washington through the African Union and the European Union to Paris.
read moreHow Senegal's presidential election was postponed, revived and brought forward
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with the president-elect on Monday and “underscored the United States' strong interest in deepening the partnership” between the two countries, the State Department said.
On the international stage, Fay aims to return military-run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc.
new generation of politicians
Commonly known as Diomaye, “the honorable one” in the local Serer language, he won the March 24 election with 54.3 percent of the vote.
This is a surprising turnaround since 2014, when the government dissolved the Pastev party, which Sall co-founded with Sonko, and Sall postponed a general election.
Fay, a Muslim from a poor family with two wives and four children, represents a new generation of youthful politicians.
He has expressed admiration for former US President Barack Obama and South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.
But Fay and the government he must uncover will soon face a major challenge.
He does not have a majority in parliament and must either build alliances to pass new laws or hold optional parliamentary elections in mid-November.
The biggest challenge will be creating enough jobs in a country of 18 million people, where 75 percent are under 35 and unemployment is officially at 20 percent.
Many young people thought their future was very bleak and risked their lives to join the wave of migrants heading for Europe.
(AFP)
