Senegal is holding legislative elections on Sunday, a vital test for opposition parties trying to play down the ruling party’s influence ahead of the 2024 presidential election amid fears President Macky Sall could seek a third term.
About 7 million voters are eligible to elect 165 deputies to the National Assembly in a politically tense climate in the West African country. Violent protests erupted last year after Sall’s main opponent, Ousmane Sonko, was arrested on charges of rape, and more than a dozen people were killed. Sonko, who came third in the 2019 election, denies the allegations and his supporters have voiced their opposition to the president.
This year he and another of Sall’s main opponents were disqualified as candidates, sparking more widespread anger and protests in which three people died in June.
Senegal, with a population of 17 million, is known for its stability in a region that has seen coups in three countries since 2020 and where leaders have changed laws to stay in power for a third term. .
Sunday’s election will give a clearer indication of what could happen in 2024.
“For (the party in power), it is a question of doing everything to maintain an absolute majority in the National Assembly in order to be able to govern quietly until 2024… and to leave the possibility of passing certain laws to counter all eventualities at the end of Sall’s second term,” said political analyst Mame Ngor Ngom.
Even though Sonko’s candidacy was rejected by the Constitutional Council, he organized opposition supporters across Senegal. A victory for the opposition “would mean the rejection of a possible third candidacy for Sall and a probable victory in the next presidential election”, Ngom said.
Sall’s ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar party currently holds 75% of the seats in the Legislative Assembly.
Serigne Thiam, a political science expert at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, says the opposition is pushing the subject of a possible third term to the detriment of other issues.
“If the opposition wins, the president will no longer be able to think of a third term. On the other hand, if the power in place wins the ballot, its supporters can push the president towards a third term, ”he warns.
Sall did not speak of a third term but promised to speak on Monday, the day after the election.
Discontent with Sall has grown as potential opponents – including popular former Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall and ex-president Abdoulaye Wade’s son Karim Wade – have been targeted by the judiciary and disqualified from running for office. Many accuse Sall of using his power to eliminate opponents.
Anger also grew amid economic concerns as fuel and food prices soared due to war in Ukraine.
Former Senegalese Prime Minister and leader of the ruling party, Aminata Touré, has called on the country’s young people to vote.
“The youth must participate massively in the vote in thanks to President Macky Sall for the extraordinary work he has done for Senegal,” he said in Kedougou in the southeast.
Interior Minister Antoine Félix Abdoulaye Diom toured polling stations across the country and said all arrangements had been made for a smooth vote, despite flooding in recent weeks.
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Petesch reported from Chicago.
The Independent Gt