Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s victory in Senegal’s presidential election, although expected as a major achievement, stunned the country’s public by having for the first time led to the victory of a candidate in the first round of elections, thus consecrating the achievement of the youngest president on the African continent.
Faye, a former tax inspectorate official and political figure in the dissolved Senegal African Patriots for Labor, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF) party, had been imprisoned in April 2023 on specious charges that were never substantiated without thus leading to a conviction, allowing him, while still in detention, to assume the leadership of the opposition as an independent opposition candidate in place of his friend and colleague Ousmane Sonko, who was also under arrest.
Former President Macky Sall’s attempts to manipulate the political system through a postponement of the elections until next December and the imprisonment of his main opponents had appeared to have failed earlier this year, when Senegal’s Constitutional Court enforced election deadlines and decreed Faye’s eligibility, in the wake of massive demonstrations that had been sweeping the country’s major cities for months.
Sall, probably fearing future indictment, had then relented in the face of the magnitude of popular dissent and the firmness of the Constitutional Court, confirming the natural expiration of his term, pledging to hold elections, and ordering an amnesty that brought Faye and Sonko back to freedom only ten days before the elections, albeit with little time to organize the complex election campaign.
In spite of all difficulties, Faye and Sonko managed in just a few days to organize an intensive campaign, limited to the main cities but still garnering additional support and leading to victory in the first round with 54 percent of the vote.
Faye’s victory emerged as early as the counting, being effectively recognized as the winner by most of his opponents well before the official announcement by the election commission. A few days later he was sworn in as Senegal’s sixth president and unexpectedly appointed Osumane Sonko to the post of prime minister, thus recognizing his mentor and friend the role denied him by the specious judicial investigations that had prevented him from running for president.
The start of Faye’s new government is read by the press and Senegalese society as an entirely new phase, produced by a turning point considered epochal, which has made it possible to defeat the consolidated power of Macky Sall – for twelve years at the helm of the country – and open ideally in the direction of reforms that can revive the national economy, consolidate democratic principles of government, and above all free Senegal from what is bluntly described as the grip of the bond with France.
Indeed, Faye and Sonko’s political program has made no secret of wanting to dismantle the link with Paris politically and economically, which is seen as France’s instrument of power to exert its ability to control the country’s institutional system and its economic resources. A link that Faye denounces as unbalanced and altered by a neocolonial vision of France, which Senegal disputes and rejects, promising to implement major reforms in every area of political and industrial management.
Ambitions with a broad horizon, which in all likelihood will now have to be measured with precision and pragmatism, especially on the proposed currency reform apt to break free from the CFA Franc on a regional scale, and which may require the new government in Dakar to adopt a more collaborative strategy with African partners.
A further commitment that the new president has made to the electorate is that of combating corruption, where he intends to conduct investigations and take measures to halt the rampant phenomenon. The first step in this direction was to announce an audit in the oil and natural gas production sector, to check the status of existing contracts with foreign companies and determine how much the sector was managed through illicit practices during the previous administration.
The president has not yet formed the new government, and as a result of the announcement of the audit in the oil and gas production sector strong interest is being shown by international companies in knowing the name of the future energy minister, who will most likely make significant amendments especially to the contract terms of foreign companies.
Finally, no less eagerly awaited is the definition of new foreign policy prerogatives, which could lead to a tightening of the relationship with France and the establishment of a more effective regional policy, which President Faye has repeatedly mentioned as a strategic necessity for Senegal’s interests.
