The Senegalese elect their deputies on Sunday, with the country’s leaders Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Ousmane Sonko aiming for the largest possible majority to implement the agenda of rupture and social justice with which they were brought to power eight months ago.
Dozens of people were queuing on Sunday in front of polling stations in the center of the Senegalese capital Dakar, AFP journalists noted. The offices have gradually opened from 8 a.m. (9 a.m. in Switzerland) and must close at 6 p.m. (7 p.m. in Switzerland). Reliable projections of the new Assembly could be available Monday morning thanks to the media.
The 7.3 million registered voters are called to elect 165 deputies after the dissolution, pronounced in September, of the Parliament resulting from the 2022 elections and still dominated by the camp of former president Macky Sall.
They can thus confirm their choice last March during the presidential election by giving a parliamentary majority to Bassirou Diomaye Faye and his Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, who promised to improve the life of a population, a large part of which struggles on a daily basis. to make ends meet.
The duo also pledged to share with it the revenues from natural resources such as hydrocarbons and fishing which would have been sold off abroad as well as to fight corruption and transform the State and its justice.
>> Reread: President Bassirou Diomaye Faye takes oath in Senegal, promised “systemic change”
An offensive tone
Ousmane Sonko’s African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (Pastef) party is the favorite for these elections, according to experts. Historically, Senegalese people have aligned their choice of presidential and legislative elections.
Ousmane Sonko multiplied during three weeks of campaigning across the country, promising projects and investments in the regions where he passed, insulting his adversaries from within, defending patriotism and national sovereignty in the face of Westerners who he considers hostile to his government.
The Prime Minister this week called on his supporters to “take revenge” for the attacks committed on his activists and attributed to opponents, before urging them to calm down. Violence was nevertheless sporadic during the campaign.
The scattered opposition
Opposite, the opposition is dispersed, despite agreements between coalitions. Macky Sall, shortening the period of reserve traditionally observed by his predecessors, campaigned remotely. His putative heir apparent, former Prime Minister Amadou Ba, defeated in the presidential election, presents his own list.
The mayor of Dakar, Barthélémy Dias, whose supporters are accused of having attacked Ousmane Sonko activists, captured some of the light by exchanging diatribes with the Prime Minister.
They take up the grievance formulated by a certain number of Senegalese men and women according to which Ousmane Sonko spoke a lot and acted little. The person concerned denies this while arguing for the state in which he and Bassirou Diomaye Faye found the country, and the multiple resistances to the undertaking of changing practices and the system.
The opposition warns of the danger of entrusting hegemonic power to authorities, according to them, extremist or incompetent.
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