Senegal - 2024 Election
Senegal is a republic dominated by a strong executive branch. In 2019, voters re-elected Macky Sall as president for a second term of five years in elections local and international observers considered generally free and fair. Observers judged the July 2022 legislative elections to be also generally free and fair.
Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by or on behalf of the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; political prisoners or detainees; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; serious government corruption; lack of investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence, including domestic and intimate partner violence, child, early, and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation/cutting; trafficking in persons; crimes involving violence or threats of violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons; and enforcement of laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults.
Human rights organizations noted examples of physical abuse committed by authorities, including excessive use of force as well as cruel and degrading treatment in prisons and detention facilities. They highlighted strip search and interrogation methods. Police reportedly forced detainees to sleep on bare floors, directed bright lights at them, beat them with batons, and kept them in cells with minimal access to fresh air. Investigations often were unduly prolonged and rarely resulted in charges or indictments. Prison overcrowding was endemic. For example, Dakar’s main prison facility, Rebeuss, held more than twice the number of inmates for which it was designed. The NGO World Prison Brief reported the country held 12,430 detainees in facilities with a capacity of 7,350 persons.
Unless a crime is “flagrant” (just committed or discovered shortly after being committed), police must obtain a warrant from a court to arrest or detain a suspect. Police treat most cases as “flagrant” offenses and make arrests without warrants, invoking pretrial detention powers.
Journalists occasionally practiced self-censorship, particularly in government-controlled media. Independent journalists regularly criticized the government without reprisal. Radio was the most important medium of mass information and source of news. Although an administrative law regulates radio frequency assignments, community radio operators claimed a lack of transparency in the process.
Although the government continued to influence locally televised information and opinion through Radio Television Senegal (RTS), privately owned television channels broadcast independently. By law the government holds a majority interest in RTS, and the president directly or indirectly controlled selection of all members of the RTS executive staff. Beyond RTS, members of President Sall’s ruling party, appointed by the president, controlled all other public media outlets; reporting by these outlets often carried a progovernment bias.
In 2019, President Macky Sall secured re-election, winning 58 percent of the votes. Election observers agreed the election was generally free and fair, despite isolated cases of voters being unable to vote. President Macky Sall -- in power since 2012 -- has not clarified his intentions but rejects claims it would be unconstitutional for him to run again.
More than 100 political and civil society groups in Senegal on 16 April 2023 formed the F24 Movement of Vital Forces, a coalition to oppose a third term for President Macky Sall. Ten months ahead of presidential elections, the coalition in a declaration called on Sall to respect the constitution and refrain from running for an "illegal and illegitimate" third term. Tensions had been running high through the country since March 2023, with protests bringing the capital Dakar to a virtual standstill.
The president's main political opponent, Ousmane Sonko, was among several opposition leaders to attend the launch of the coalition. The declaration called for the release of "political detainees" arrested during demonstrations over a defamation case against Sonko brought by Tourism Minister Mame Mbaye Niang, a member of Sall's party. Sonko was handed a two-month suspended sentence in the court case at the end of March after a trial his lawyers said would not rule him out of the 2024 presidential election. An appeal was lodged against the ruling and Sonko is due to be judged on appeal on Monday. Sonko's fate is also wrapped up in another case in which he is accused of rape, which he contests. He and his supporters accuse the government of using the justice system to try to prevent him from running in next year's ballot. The presidential party accuses Sonko of seeking to paralyse the country and of drumming up anger on the streets in a bid to escape justice.
President Macky Sall’s decision 03 July 2023 not to seek a third term as Senegal’s head of state has thrown open the country’s presidential election, ending widespread speculation over his political future. “Even if I have the right, I felt that my duty is not to contribute to destroying what I have built for this country,” the president said as he ruled out running for a third term – to the dismay of his most ardent supporters. The 61-year-old leader had previously remained coy about his ambitions, stoking tensions over whether he would use a constitutional revision to bypass the country’s two-term limit.
Sall’s momentous decision bucked the continent’s trend of entrenched strongmen leaders using constitutional changes as an excuse to reset their mandate and extend their hold on power. It was praised by neighbouring leaders, the African Union and former colonial power France, whose foreign ministry hailed it as “proof” of the solidity of Senegalese democracy. The president's surprise move comes 11 years after he defeated his predecessor and former mentor Abdoulaye Wade, whose own decision to seek a controversial third term in office had sparked violent street protests.
Senegalese opposition figure Ousmane Sonko on 31 July 2023 was charged with fomenting insurrection, three days after being arrested at his home. Sonko, a fierce critic of President Macky Sall, "was charged and placed in custody" after appearing before a judge, lawyer Ousseynou Ngom told AFP. Sonko explained, "In the face of so much hate, lies, oppression, persecution, I have decided to resist," of his decision to go on hunger strike and urged "all political detainees" to join him. Senegal's public prosecutor announced seven new charges against the politician – who has faced a string of legal woes he claims are aimed at keeping him out of politics.
Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison on June 1 in a high-profile moral corruption case. The sentence, which could bar him from the 2024 presidential election, sparked clashes that left at least 16 dead. Sonko has built up a passionate following among Senegal's disaffected young. He portrays President Sall as a would-be dictator who oversees a corrupt elite. Sall's supporters retort that Sonko is sowing instability.
Senegalese presidential candidates faced a shortened race to election day after the constitutional council confirmed the delayed vote would be held on March 24, kick-starting a competition that remained wide open. Uncertainty over the date of the vote has gripped the West African country since early February, when the authorities’ thwarted bid to postpone the Feb. 25 poll by 10 months provoked widespread protests and warnings of democratic backsliding. Many hope the worst of the crisis is over after the council ruled on 06 March 2024 that the vote must be held before President Macky Sall’s mandate expires on April 2, prompting him to schedule it for March 24 - a date the top court has now approved.
The new date left the 19 candidates little more than two weeks to canvas support. It also means for the first time campaigning will take place during the holy month of Ramadan, when many in the Muslim-majority country fast. “This is an unprecedented situation,” said opposition candidate Thierno Alassane Sall, expressing the hope the election would “allow us to close the painful chapter that has just passed”.
The ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) coalition’s candidate, Amadou Ba, sounded a confident note. “From this evening onwards, I will be devoting myself fully to preparing for the presidential election ... to ensure a victory in the first round,” he said. There are no public election polls in Senegal, but Ba’s presidential prospects are far from certain.
Even before the postponement dispute, some within the BBY coalition questioned the first-time candidate’s low profile with voters compared with seasoned rivals. Meanwhile the authorities’ push to delay the vote could have undermined BBY’s already shaky support. With a record number of candidates in the race, the chances are high none of them will win more than 50% of the vote and avoid a second round head-to-head.
Senegalese opposition leader Bassirou Diomaye Faye was hailed as the winner in the West African nation’s presidential elections, with early results from Sunday’s vote putting him ahead of other contenders, including the ruling party’s candidate. Faye had received phone calls from 13 of his 18 competitors congratulating him on his victory, local media reported on Monday, citing the Patriots for Work, Ethics, and Fraternity Party (PASTEF) leader’s campaign director, Moustapha Guirassy.
While the official results were not expected until later in the week, Faye’s supporters reportedly began celebrating on the streets in the capital, Dakar, late on Sunday after early indications showed him winning a majority of votes. However, his main rival, former prime minister Amadou Ba of the ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) coalition, has denied defeat, claiming in a statement cited by Reuters that a run-off election would be required to determine the winner.
More than 7 million people were registered to vote in over 15,000 polling stations across the former French colony, which has a population of approximately 18 million. According to Senegalese broadcaster RTS, the turnout was around 71%. The elections were supposed to take place last month, but outgoing President Macky Sall postponed the poll, sparking deadly clashes in the African nation. Earlier plans to postpone voting until December were deemed unconstitutional by the country’s top election court, which ordered the government to hold them before Sall’s tenure expired on April 2.
Sall did not run in the election, making it the first time in Senegal’s history that an incumbent was not on the ballot. He said the decision to delay the vote was necessary to resolve a dispute between the judiciary and lawmakers over the exclusion of key opposition figures from the final electoral list. PASTEF’s previous leader, Ousmane Sonko, who had been in jail, was among the candidates disqualified over his alleged criminal record.
Faye, a co-founder of the PASTEF coalition, was also imprisoned nearly a year ago on charges of defamation and contempt of court. Earlier this month, President Sall signed an amnesty law that let Sonko and Faye out of prison just days before the elections, with both campaigning under the banner “Diomaye is Sonko.”
Left-wing pan-Africanist Bassirou Diomaye Faye on 02 April 2024 became Senegal's youngest president. Commonly known as Diomaye, or "the honourable one", his promise of radical change won the election with 54.3 percent of the vote. His predecessor, Macky Sall, symbolically handed Faye the key to the presidential headquarters before leaving the palace. Faye pledged systemic change after years of deadly turmoil and announced his mentor, opposition figure Ousmane Sonko, as prime minister. Sonko, 49, was at the center of a two-year stand-off with the state that triggered bouts of deadly unrest. He was disqualified from running in the most recent race and picked Faye as his replacement on the presidential ballot.
Faye's campaign set out priorities of national reconciliation, easing the cost-of-living crisis and fighting corruption. He has also vowed to restore national sovereignty over key assets such as the oil, gas and fishing sectors. Senegal is due to start hydrocarbon production later this year. Faye also wants to replace the CFA franc, which he sees as a French colonial legacy, with a new common regional currency, and to invest more in agriculture with the aim of reaching food self-sufficiency.
Faye and the government he will shortly lead face major challenges. The biggest appears to be creating enough jobs in a nation where 75 percent of the 18-million population is aged under 35 and the unemployment rate is officially 20 percent.
Faye seeks to bring military-run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger back into the fold of the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc. He urged "more solidarity" between African countries "in the face of security challenges". The military regimes in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea all sent representatives to Diamniadio, including Guinean president General Mamady Doumbouya. Burkina Faso's leader Captain Ibrahim Traore wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Faye's mandate represented a "symbol of a new era for an uninhibited, free and sovereign Africa". He added he was ready to work together on "the renovation of sub-regional and international cooperation".
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