Dakar, Dec 26 (APS) – The Collective of Civil Society Organizations for Elections (COSCE) believes that its nomination among the three finalists for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is the consecration of a 25-year commitment to service of Senegalese democracy and in the world in general, particularly in times of political and social tensions.
''This strong commitment to promoting Senegalese democracy allowed it to be selected at the same time as two other organizations at the international level for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025,'' declared Safiétou Diop of the Network Siggil Jiggen, a member organization of COSCE.
She spoke thus, Thursday, in Dakar, during the reading of the declaration of this collective bringing together around fifteen Senegalese civil society organizations with the aim of presenting the actions carried out since its creation in 2000.
The meeting recorded the participation of several COSCE partners, including USAID and the European Union.
The nomination of COSCE for the 2025 Nobel Prize constitutes a first in West Africa, which honors Africa and even beyond, welcomed its president, law professor, Babacar Guèye.
''Being a co-finalist for the Nobel Prize is a consecration for our organization, whose selection committee of the Nobel Academy has praised not only the commitment to democracy for two decades, but also a recognition of its rigor, its impartiality and the confidence of Senegalese citizens and institutions in it,” he indicated.
Founded on the eve of the first alternation in Senegal, in March 2000, with the election of Abdoulaye Wade (2000-2012) against Abdou Diouf (1981-2000), the COSCE carried out various electoral and political mediation actions .
These have, among other things, given rise to strong political consensus and enabled the integration of new provisions into the Senegalese electoral code, such as the election of mayors by universal suffrage, the establishment of drawing lots for the submission of electoral files. candidacy for various elections.
Coming to represent Jean-Baptiste Tine, Minister of the Interior and Public Security at the meeting, the Director General of Elections, Birame Sène praised the role that the COSCE plays as ''a true guarantor of democracy''.
Expressing his congratulations to him for his “deserved nomination” among the three finalists for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, he underlined the “important work of the COSCE in the pacification of the political space and the permanent support that it contributes to the General Directorate of Elections (DGE), in terms of raising awareness and mobilizing citizens''.
The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded on December 10 of each year, since 1901, to a personality or an institution. It can also be shared between two or even three personalities or institutions having rendered great services to humanity through diplomacy.
In 2024, it was awarded to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo for its fight against atomic weapons.
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