Dakar, June 13 (APS) – The director of training and communication at the General Directorate of Elections (DGE), Birame Sène, pleaded, Thursday, for the institutional integration of religious guides in the electoral process.
“Religious actors must be integrated institutionally into the actors of the electoral process because they play a very important role in appeasement,” he declared.
According to him, people focus, very often when talking about the actors of the electoral process, on political parties, justice, the Autonomous National Electoral Commission (CENA), but we do not forget the religious leaders who do not make much noise. but which play an important role in the electoral process and calming the climate.
Mr. Sène spoke on the occasion of the restitution ceremony of the study ”Perceptions of the place and role of religious actors in the electoral game”, conducted by Timbuktu Institute, in collaboration with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Foundation (FKAS).
Presenting the main points of this study, the regional director of Timbuktu Institute, Bakary Sambe, indicated that two major trends emerged from these surveys carried out mainly in coastal areas and border regions.
The first, he says, is that “we have a Senegalese society which has evolved a lot with young people who have other modes of socialization both politically and religiously”.
Added to this is “the democratization of access to religious knowledge and information in general through social networks”, according to Mr. Sambe, stressing that Senegalese society “has changed a lot”.
According to him, there is a new awareness among the Senegalese who are trying to distinguish between their status as citizens who must contribute to the political game and must make electoral political choices, and their membership or allegiance to religious groups. .
”It is very clear that the Senegalese interviewed as part of this study and according to global trends (…) have more and more emancipation over their electoral choices, their political commitment, and in relation to the voting instructions emanating from religious,” explained Bakary Sambe,
However, he specified, the overwhelming majority of Senegalese believe that religious leaders must continue to play their role in mediation, in pacifying the political space and being stabilizers to strengthen our life. together and our social cohesion”.
MK/OID/ASB
