March 25, 2024: The opposition Bassirou Diomaye Faye takes over the Presidency of Senegal. Imprisoned until 10 days before the vote and unknown to most voters just a few months before, he surprises and defeats the prime minister, Amadou Ba, backed by the entire state apparatus and the outgoing president, Macky Sall. This document seeks to explore the main reasons for this electoral result, with its internal and external context, in a region where new and young African leaders who have achieved power thanks to coups d'état lead. Faye has in common with them his novelty (although his mentor, Ousmane Sonko, is a great opposition figure in Senegal), youth and part of an ideology to put into practice. There are numerous and diverse eyes on Faye, reaching the former metropolis: France, whose influence is declining in the area.
Introduction: Diomaye Faye, new president
"Senegal will always maintain its place and remain a friendly country, a safe and reliable ally of any partner that engages with us in virtuous, respectful and mutually productive cooperation.”, assures the newly elected new president of the country, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, to the media. With these words, Faye seeks to calm suspicions abroad regarding his victory, described as “a breakup.”[1].
However, trying to read between the lines, one can sense the announcement that something is going to change or, at least, that the new administration is going to try, without a doubt and without further delay. And not only in the field of foreign relations, especially in relation to France (although not only), but also behind closed doors.
On the same day that he turns 44, the preliminary results grant the opposition Diomaye Faye victory in the elections of March 24, 2024 and, therefore, the Presidency of Senegal. With 54,28% of the votes, according to the National Autonomous Electoral Commission, he does not even need a second round, having reached the absolute majority. Faye has achieved especially notable results in Dakar, which concentrates 26% of voters nationwide, and in the southern region of Casamance, where he has triumphed in his three departments: Ziguinchor, Bignona and Oussouye. In second place is the official candidate and former prime minister, Amadou Ba, with 35,79% of the votes, the majority harvested in his traditional strongholds in the center-east of the country, such as Matam and Podor.[2].
In elections described, both inside and outside the country, as “peaceful” (after protests against the attempt to delay them by the outgoing president, Sall), and presented as a fight between two antagonistic models, the project (as they themselves They call it) oppositional rupturist defeats official continuity.
Thus, for a five-year term, Faye becomes the fifth president of Senegal, the youngest in the country's history.[3] and in the youngest elected leader currently in office in Africa (this is not because there are not younger ones, which there are, but because they have come to power by force)[4]. Thus, the trend of what happened in other West African countries continues, where new and young African leaders come to power.
However, as noted in previous lines, with one caveat in this case: Faye does it at the polls, contrary to what happened in other countries, within that same trend in which characteristics such as military control and weakening of democratic institutions, as seen from Mali to Niger. The Senegalese case, although not the only one, is therefore notable, without a doubt, in an increasingly tough neighborhood.
But how does someone who was an unknown young man just a few months ago, and who was in prison just a few weeks ago, reach the Presidency of Senegal?
The rise to power of Ousmane Sonko and Diomaye Faye
Diomaye Faye, nicknamed “Don Limpio”, a former tax inspector, also has a reputation for being methodical and modest; a hard and serious worker. Soft-spoken, he grew up in his hometown (near Mbour) and has two wives. He has run for president as a outsider of politics. In fact, his critics blame him precisely on his lack of experience in political office.
Another criticism made of Faye is that he is “a president by default”, because he becomes a candidate and headliner due to the impossibility of Ousmane Sonko, the great and extremely popular Senegalese opposition figure, to opt for the Presidency for a judicial resolution that prevents it. Thus, when Sonko realizes that it can't be him, he looks for a plan B and, among several options, chooses the youngest and most moldable: Faye. Both participated in the founding in 2014 of their party Pastef (Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity), banned last July (which forces Faye to stand for election as an independent), both are former tax inspectors and have been in prison on charges they have said were politically motivated (Sonko for “corrupting young people” and Faye for “defamation and spreading hoaxes” and, later, for “undermining state security and call for insurrection.
“Bassirou is me,” Sonko has said[5] or “Diomaye es Sonko” could be read on the electoral posters. Sonko pours all of his political capital, influence and weight into Faye. Already at the end of the presidential campaign he goes so far as to state: “I know that Diomaye Faye will never deviate from the project. He is straighter than me, more organized than me and he has better methods. "I am more eloquent and more handsome, but he is better."[6].
This has occurred between 2023 and 2024, and after several years of institutional harassment (such as the aforementioned trials and imprisonments) and street protests in support of Sonko, some of the worst seen in Senegal. After Sonko ran for the 2019 presidential election and came third, initially unpromising, he gained more and more support over time. Then, after the tensions unleashed from 2021, and lately at the hands of Faye, victory arrives. For all these reasons, it has surprised few that Diomaye Faye's first decision as president was the appointment of his mentor Ousmane Sonko as prime minister. Below is a brief chronology of their path to the top of power in Senegal:
Thus, the first and key factor in Faye's arrival to the Presidency of the country is the support of Sonko. As Tochi Eni-Kalu, an analyst at Eurasia Group, points out, a strong turnout from Sonko's base, along with anti-establishment sentiment among voters (partly due to the delayed elections) and last-minute support from the also opposition Democratic Party Senegalese have led Faye to victory[7].
And with the support of Sonko, the second factor of his victory appears, the base that the opponent draws and to which Eni-Kalu refers, which is largely made up of young people, supporters of Sonko over the last few years. And not only Sonko, Faye himself has the sympathies of numerous young people who identify with his modest origins and character, as pointed out by the political analyst of the West Africa Think Tank, Babacar Ndiaye.[8].
A support that is not inconsiderable, as has been demonstrated not only in the streets but also at the polls. Senegal has a Muslim majority population of around 18 million inhabitants, half of whom are under 19 years old.[9] and more than 60% are under 25 and have difficulty finding work[10]. And this occurs, according to the World Bank, because the Senegalese economy has not taken off for various reasons, among them: the political tensions of recent years, inflation and the delay in the announced production of hydrocarbons (oil and gas) but, also, due to structural problems such as low productivity, limited human capital, high levels of “informal” economy and persistent youth emigration. And, to all this, external factors have been added such as the health crisis due to the pandemic or the war in Ukraine.[11].
If we add to the above the fact that the policies and projects promoted by the outgoing president, Macky Sall, have failed to have an impact on an improvement in the economic situation and the life of a large part of its population (in addition, with violent repressions of opposition protests), the growing support for a disruptive and anti-system message, like that of Sonko and Faye, is understood. With populist and nationalist overtones (of recovery of a sovereignty that, according to what they claim, “is being sold to foreigners”, whether they are powers or companies, and of denunciation of “French neocolonialism”) Faye advocates for a complete institutional renewal, a better redistribution of wealth, Senegal's exit from the CFA franc (the controversial currency created, and governed, by France in 1945 and used in several West African countries), less foreign dependence, the renegotiation of hydrocarbon contracts with multinationals and fight corruption[12].
As described by the French newspaper Le Monde, Faye is the candidate for a change of system and left-wing pan-Africanism[13], in line with the ideas of other young African leaders in the region. Leaders who, although they have come to power by force and not by the polls, enjoy a certain support from the young people of their respective countries, who prefer them to the lack of results, the stagnation or corruption of regimes that have spent decades in power in their countries, since the reformist movements of the 90s[14].
Macky Sall and the maneuvers that cloud his legacy
It has already been mentioned earlier in this document how the economic diversification measures and the projects of outgoing president Macky Sall have not taken off and have not resulted in an improvement in the lives of citizens. This is apart from the accusations of corruption linked, among other issues, to the agreements with foreign companies for the announced exploitation of gas and oil in the country which, after the delay, is scheduled for mid-2024.
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