He turned 44 years old as of Monday and was still in prison a few days ago. Bassirou Diomaye Faye could beat Amadou Ba, the candidate of the ruling party who already saw himself winning the crucial election in Senegal. The anti-system opponent appears, this Monday, to be getting closer to a victory in the presidential election. A political earthquake.
“You will see another face of the Senegalese and Senegal. Because it’s a total revolution. Everything will change. On the behavior side, on the social side, on the financial side, everything will change,” said Coumba Diallo, known as “Queen Biz”, a singer who supports Faye on Sunday. A Faye who, faced with the attractive results, remains silent until now.
“The choice for the breakup”
“Candidate for system change” and “left-wing pan-Africanism”, Faye is close to opponent Ousmane Sonko. His program insists on the reestablishment of national “sovereignty”, sold off, according to him, abroad. The quadra promised to fight corruption and better distribute wealth. He also pledged to renegotiate mining, gas and oil contracts concluded with foreign companies.
He embodies “the choice for the break,” Faye said of himself while voting alongside his two wives in his village of Ndiaganiao, in the west of the country. Diaraaf Gaye, a 26-year-old trader, “voted Diomaye without thinking”. “It is time for the country to start on a new basis with young people” in power, he assures.
Voters lined up by dozens or hundreds on Sunday in front of different offices, without any exact assessment of participation (which was 66% in 2019) being provided. While some 7.3 million voters were called to vote, no notable incident was reported. Many people expressed their satisfaction at voting, after the unrest caused by the postponement of the election.
The youngest president of Senegal
Bassirou Diomaye Faye, benefiting from an amnesty law, came out of eleven months of imprisonment ten days before the election, at the same time as his guide and leader of their dissolved party Ousmane Sonko. If he wins, he would become the youngest president of Senegal.
The election is thus being followed closely, Senegal being considered one of the most stable countries in a West Africa shaken by putsch. Dakar maintains strong relations with the West, while Russia strengthens its surrounding positions. Official results are not expected to be known until later this week. The national electoral commission has until Friday to publish provisional results, before their validation by the Constitutional Council.