At the end of an official campaign of 19 days, the Senegalese are invited to choose the 165 deputies who will constitute the 14th legislature of the Republic since the independence of the country. A vote that comes after the “debacle” supporters of Macky Sall in the local elections last January. And just weeks after an outbreak of violence in the streets of Dakar and other Senegalese cities against a backdrop of political tensions.
Eight coalitions are in the running. The presidential majority, led by former Prime Minister Aminata Touaré, will notably face Yewwi Askan Wi (YAW, “liberate the people”), the coalition formed around Ousmane Sonko, MP “anti-system”. The third man in the 2019 presidential election is not himself a candidate, after the Interior Ministry said “inadmissible” the list submitted by his movement.
The newspaper Daily South abstract : “Ousmane Sonko and his comrades maintain that a change of majority would allow […] to restore to parliament its vocation as an institution at the service of the people. And this, through the vote of the laws which will protect the interests of the populations in all the contracts signed by the State, the tax exemption of the basic necessities and the end of the debate” on a possible third term of Macky Sall.
In a column published by SenePlus, personalities from Senegalese civil society recall the importance of this deadline for the future of the political landscape. “The overhaul of our institutions cannot take place with a president who does not want to reduce his immense power.”
Macky Sall, elected in 2012 for seven years and re-elected in 2019 for an additional five years, cast doubt on his intentions at the end of his term, while promising to appoint a Prime Minister from the victorious legislative formation.
While abstention looks set to be high again, the weekly The witness, whose article is reproduced by Seneplus believes that the presidential coalition failed in its campaign: “The leaders of the majority do not talk about projects to be developed and able to change the daily life of the populations and in particular the young people who continue to die in the oceans while trying to join Spain. They focus instead on the achievements of Macky Sall, singing all the time that the current President of the Republic has achieved what no other president has ever done in Casamance since the independence of our country.
More prosaically, Seneplus warns of the heavy rains and thunderstorms expected on Sunday in the country, which usually generate “enormous inconveniences in the capital Dakar”. the July 22, torrential rain had blocked roads throughout the city. “What about the legislative ballot? Will measures be taken for the proper organization of the elections?”