Senegal’s Presidential Candidates Start Campaigns After Protests Over Vote Delay

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DAKAR, Sene­gal — Pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates in Sene­gal kicked off their elec­tion cam­paigns Sat­ur­day, fol­low­ing weeks of vio­lent protests across the African coun­try after the vote was delayed. 

The 19 approved can­di­dates vying for the top job now have a short­er peri­od to ral­ly sup­port­ers ahead of the March 24 elec­tion, expect­ed to be the most tight­ly con­test­ed race since Sene­gal gained inde­pen­dence more than six decades ago. 

The recent vio­lent protests also have raised con­cerns for a coun­try that used to be seen as a bea­con of demo­c­ra­t­ic sta­bil­i­ty in West Africa, a region plagued by coups and insecurity. 

Pres­i­dent Macky Sall, who is pre­vent­ed from run­ning because of term lim­its, post­poned the elec­tion last month, just weeks before it was to take place on Feb­ru­ary 25. His announce­ment that the vote would instead be held 10 months from now plunged Sene­gal into chaos as oppo­si­tion protests filled the streets. 

Sene­gal’s high­est elec­tion author­i­ty, the Con­sti­tu­tion­al Coun­cil, reject­ed Sal­l’s post­pone­ment and ordered the gov­ern­ment to set a new date as soon as pos­si­ble. Gov­ern­ment spokesper­son Abdou Karim Fofana ear­li­er this week announced the new date. 

Alioune Tine, the founder of the Sene­galese think tank Afrika­jom Cen­ter, said that because of the delay, the can­di­dates with the most finan­cial resources will like­ly ben­e­fit from this short­er window. 

“It’s going to be a hard-fought bat­tle,” said Tine, adding that there is no clear favorite. 

Most of the cam­paign ahead and the vote itself will take place dur­ing the Mus­lim holy month of Ramadan, when the pious fast from dawn until dusk. Ramadan is expect­ed to begin at sun­down Sun­day, depend­ing on the sight­ing of the moon. 

Sene­gal has a major­i­ty Mus­lim population. 

The front-run­ners will like­ly be for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Amadou Ba as the rul­ing par­ty’s choice, and impris­oned Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a less­er-known can­di­date who gained pop­u­lar­i­ty as the chief of the dis­solved PASTEF party. 

Diomaye Faye has been behind bars for near­ly a year but is due to be released in time for elec­tions after the pres­i­dent passed a decree to exon­er­ate polit­i­cal prisoners. 

He has stepped in for oppo­si­tion leader Ous­mane Sonko, also in prison and who has been barred from run­ning. In June, Sonko was charged with cor­rupt­ing youth and sen­tenced to two years in prison. 

Among the oth­er can­di­dates is a for­mer may­or of Dakar, Khal­i­fa Sall, who is run­ning for the fourth time and anoth­er for­mer prime min­is­ter, Idris­sa Seck. 

The only woman can­di­date is Anta Babacar Ngom, the head of Sed­i­ma, one of the coun­try’s biggest food companies.