While it was taking shape, the victory of the ruling party in Senegal, PASTEF, in the early legislative elections on Sunday, November 17, seems to be confirmed with the first trends from the polling stations. A few hours after the end of the vote, the government spokesperson, Amadou Ndieck Sarré, in possession of “90 to 95% of the results”, spoke of a “large victory” for the presidential majority. He was not contradicted by the former head of state, Macky Sall, at the head of the opposition coalition, who recognized the defeat of his camp, the day after these legislative elections. Also the Senegalese press, as a whole, spoke of a “tidal wave” of PASTEF. Eight months after winning the presidential election, the duo of Senegalese leaders, Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Ousmane Sonko, are proving their popularity and the hopes placed in them, by winning again at the polls. PASTEF, which is guaranteed to win the large, or even the overwhelming majority of the 165 seats of deputies, should reign over the new Parliament. This almost assured victory, pending provisional and final results, is not surprising. It illustrates the thirst for change in the country of Teranga, where many young people were impatient to turn the page on Macky Sall.
It was also hard to believe that the Senegalese were going to give the keys to the presidency to PASTEF and refuse it those of the National Assembly. Sunday’s legislative elections, which took place without major incident, legitimately consolidate Faye-Sonko’s power and further strengthen Senegalese democracy, considered a model on the African continent. They open the way to more serene governance of PASTEF which had all the difficulty in the world to pass reforms in the former National Assembly, dominated by the opposition. A climate of mistrust between the two institutions had also set in, leading President Faye to dissolve Parliament and call the legislative elections for Sunday. The storm will only be a memory, with the coronation of PASTEF which is more or less equivalent to the lifting of obstacles to Parliament. The tide has undoubtedly turned in favor of the two now former opponents, who have become masters of the country.
The vision of a sovereign, just and prosperous Senegal, conveyed by Faye and Sonko, left-wing pan-Africanists, had an effect on the masses. Such a philosophy can only prosper, at a time when France’s ascendancy over its former colonies is strongly criticized in West Africa by a new generation in search of more dignity and benchmarks. It remains for the Faye-Sonko duo to keep their campaign commitments, so as not to also be “vomited” by history. Among the promises of the two crowned heads of PASTEF are, among others, the sanitation of the economic framework, the fight against corruption, rational exploitation of natural resources, the development of human capital and social equity. These are noble ambitions, which if implemented, will positively transform Senegal. Faye and Sonko, who now have full powers, are expected to work…
Kader Patrick
