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Senegal voted on Sunday to elect its Parliament, pending the publication of the official results. Both President Macky Sall’s party and the opposition to his government claimed victory in the elections. In total, there were 165 disputed seats and it is estimated that around 7 million people voted.
Senegal voted this Sunday to elect its Parliament, while awaiting the publication of the official results. Both President Macky Sall’s party and the opposition to his government claimed victory in the legislative elections. In total, there were 165 disputed seats and it is estimated that around 7 million people voted.
After weeks of demonstrations and political tensions in what is considered one of the most stable democracies in West Africa, Senegal is experiencing a day of uncertainty, when the ruling party and the opposition claim victory.
The ruling party, led by President Macky Sall, said it won 30 of the 46 departments. For its part, the opposition assured that it won a “comfortable victory” in the legislative elections, without specifying how many seats they won or what kind of majority they have.
Through a national television broadcast, Aminata Toure, former prime minister and head of the ruling coalition list, announced the results from the party’s headquarters on Monday morning. “This gives us an unquestionable majority,” she assured, however, she also did not say how many seats her party won.
The two opposition coalitions, Wallu Senegal and Yewwi Askane Wi, responded to Toure’s statement by saying they had defeated the ruling party in most departments.
“The provisional results of the legislative elections show that President Macky Sall lost the elections… and that he will not have a majority in the National Assembly,” read a jointly released statement.
Barthelemy Dias, mayor of Dakar, the capital, questioned the “results” announced by Sall’s Party, saying that it was not for them to announce them. He assured that the opposition won and called on the youth to mobilize and “preserve their victory.”
The official results are expected to be published this week by the Autonomous Electoral Commission, the entity in charge of monitoring and controlling the elections. Their representatives assured that “the vote took place in peace and tranquility.”
The situation in Senegal
The political environment in Senegal is tense. Since last year, the country of 17.5 million people has been marked by violent protests after the ruling party’s main opponent, Ousmane Sonko, was deprived of his liberty on charges of rape, a charge he has repeatedly denied.
In the demonstrations a dozen people were killed.
Sonko came in third place in the 2019 election, when Sall was re-elected. This year Sonko and another of the president’s most visible opponents were disqualified as presidential candidates, which unleashed the anger of some citizens and a new day of protests took place, leaving 3 dead in June.
The opposition bloc seeks to control Parliament and discourage an alleged intention of the president to exercise a third unconstitutional term in 2024. They fear that something similar to what happened in 2020 in the Ivory Coast and Guinea will happen, when their leaders were re-elected for the third time.
Senegal has been discussing this issue for some time. In 2016, the country made a constitutional change, reducing its presidential term from seven to five years.
Sall came to power in 2012, after removing Abdoulaye Wade, who held the position for 12 years. The opposition discredits his mandate based on the economic difficulties the country is facing due to the pandemic, the increase in food and fuel prices.
Senegal’s hybrid electoral system establishes that 97 candidates must be elected in the administrative departments, 53 through proportional representation and 15 by Senegalese abroad, for a total of 165.
With Reuters and AP
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