{"id":10794,"date":"2024-02-11T13:06:26","date_gmt":"2024-02-11T13:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=10794"},"modified":"2024-02-11T13:10:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-11T13:10:34","slug":"macky-sall-and-senegals-democratic-credentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/10794\/macky-sall-and-senegals-democratic-credentials\/","title":{"rendered":"Macky Sall and Senegal’s democratic credentials"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Douglas Yates*<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Senegal\u2019s\u00a0President Macky Sall<\/a>\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0in early February that presidential elections, originally scheduled for 25 February, would be postponed indefinitely. The announcement has raised fears of popular protests, violent repression, a once democratic president transforming into an authoritarian ruler \u2013 and possibly even another coup d\u2019\u00e9tat in west Africa.<\/p>\n

There has been a flurry of coups in the region since 2020 \u2013 Mali in August\u00a0that year<\/a>\u00a0followed by\u00a0a second<\/a>\u00a0in 2021.\u00a0Guinea<\/a>\u00a0also saw a coup that year and\u00a0Burkina Faso<\/a>\u00a0a year later. In July 2023 the military took control in\u00a0Niger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Senegal has never suffered a coup d’etat and has been considered the region\u2019s\u00a0most stable democracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since\u00a0independence in 1960<\/a>\u00a0it has had three peaceful transitions of power. First in 1980, from\u00a0Leopold Senghor<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Abdou Diouf<\/a>; then, in 2000, from Diouf to\u00a0Abdoulaye Wade<\/a>; and then, in 2012, from\u00a0Wade to Sall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In political science terminology, a democracy is considered consolidated only after a \u201cdouble turnover<\/a>\u201d. This is when an opposition party which came to power through democratic elections (the first turnover) itself hands over power to its opposition after losing democratic elections (the second turnover).<\/p>\n

I am a\u00a0political scientist and researcher<\/a>\u00a0with an interest in African politics and democracy building. Based on my experience, I believe Senegal is exceptional in west Africa.<\/p>\n

The country has enjoyed a \u201ctriple turnover\u201d of power through democratic elections. Yet all three of these peaceful democratic transitions were preceded by a crisis with incumbent presidents attempting to remain in office beyond their constitutional mandate.<\/p>\n

Senegal\u2019s democratic credentials seemed to be cemented by the fact that none of the presidents succeeded in staying on unconstitutionally.<\/p>\n

This track record should be used to evaluate the prospects of a new president coming to office.<\/p>\n

A model west African democracy<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Over the past four decades Senegal became known for its\u00a0relatively independent<\/a>\u00a0media and free expression. The presidents of Senegal all managed, eventually, to step down from power. This allowed elections to become the only game in town.<\/p>\n

Senegal is rated \u201cpartly free<\/a>\u201d by Freedom House in its\u00a0Freedom in the World 2023<\/a>\u00a0report. The think-tank uses a set of criteria such as political rights and civil liberties to categorise countries as free, partly free and not free. Senegal scores well in some areas, like academic freedom and individuals\u2019 right to practise and express their faith or non-belief in public. But it falls down in others, such as restricting people\u2019s right of assembly and violently dispersing some demonstrations.<\/p>\n

Although regular elections are held, each one of Senegal\u2019s leaders started off well, then attempted to stay in power longer than the designated time.<\/p>\n

Leopold Sedar Senghor<\/a>\u00a0became Senegal\u2019s first president after independence in 1960. He came to power on the back of his reputation as an intellectual of the \u201cn\u00e9gritude\u201d movement, as a democratic opponent of French colonialism and someone who had fought for freedom.<\/p>\n

But, in 1963, 1968, 1973 and 1978, he staged presidential\u00a0plebiscites<\/a>\u00a0so that he could remain in office.<\/p>\n

Then, in December 1980, after 22 years in office, he\u00a0decided<\/a>\u00a0to step down and hand over to his designated successor, Abdou Diouf.<\/p>\n

Abdou Diouf<\/a>\u00a0had the same temptation. He held on to the presidency until decades of peaceful, principled, democratic opposition led by Abdoulaye Wade forced him to accept his losing bid for re-election in 2000.<\/p>\n

Wade<\/a>\u00a0served time in prison following a long struggle for power, and was forced into exile in Paris. He went on to lead a popular movement that ousted the long-ruling Socialist Party and Diouf.<\/p>\n

He promised to clean up the corruption inherent in single-party rule. But towards the end of his second mandate in 2009, he too began to imitate his predecessors. Wade spent his last years in the presidential palace\u00a0trying<\/a>\u00a0to win a third term. When that did not work he named his son\u00a0Karim Wade<\/a>\u00a0as his dynastic successor. But Karim Wade was\u00a0convicted of coruption<\/a>\u00a0and his father\u2019s wishes weren\u2019t fulfilled.<\/p>\n

Macky Sall<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Alliance for the Republic party<\/a>\u00a0came to power in 2012 as an honest, anti-corruption politician. But he too has fallen.<\/p>\n

After his re-election in 2019, he named an uncharismatic technocratic prime minister,\u00a0Amadou Ba<\/a>, as his number two. This turned his former prime minister\u00a0Aminata \u201cMimi\u201d Tour\u00e9<\/a>\u00a0into his opponent. (She is now running for president.) It also ensured that he would not face a prime minister becoming more popular than himself.<\/p>\n

Sall clearly wanted to run for a third term. Yet\u00a0he renounced<\/a>\u00a0that option in 2023, and endorsed Amadou Ba as his candidate for succession.<\/p>\n

The last main opposition candidate left in 2023, after the exclusion of Karim Wade, was\u00a0Ousmane Sonko<\/a>. A social media personality, he is sometimes referred to as the \u201cTrump of Senegal\u201d because of his shocking statements, which have endeared him to young Senegalese. In\u00a0one instance<\/a>, he said \u201cthose who have ruled Senegal from the beginning deserve to be shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is also a more serious side to Sonko, a former tax inspector who investigated corruption in the Sall government. He published a\u00a0book<\/a>\u00a0about oil and gas corruption in Senegal which implicated the Sall government.<\/p>\n

In 2023 sexual assault charges were mounted against him, and\u00a0he was imprisoned<\/a>. This disqualified him from running in the 2024 election. Sonko\u00a0endorsed<\/a>\u00a0Bassirou Diomaye Faye as his replacement.<\/p>\n

His supporters have always maintained that the charges were\u00a0trumped up<\/a>\u00a0because of his opposition to the Sall government.<\/p>\n

Sonko was acquitted on the rape charge but\u00a0convicted<\/a>\u00a0for \u201ccorrupting the youth\u201d. Young people\u00a0took to the streets in protest<\/a>, calling Sall a tyrant. Sall used the repressive apparatus of the state to quell the protests.<\/p>\n

Then, on 4 February, as campaigning was about to begin, in an unprecedented move Sall announced<\/a>\u00a0that he was postponing the election indefinitely, citing a dispute over the candidate list.<\/p>\n

Protesters and police\u00a0clashed<\/a>\u00a0in Dakar.<\/p>\n

Tensions continued to rise. As opposition leaders and supporters launched protests, the government imposed\u00a0restrictions on<\/a>\u00a0access to the internet.<\/p>\n

On 5 February parliamentarians were asked to vote on postponing the election until 15 December. A long and heated debate ensued. Several opposition lawmakers were forcibly removed from the chamber while the police used tear gas to disperse protesters gathered outside the parliament building.<\/p>\n

In the end the decision to postpone the\u00a0poll until December<\/a>\u00a0was passed with opposition MPs missing. A number\u00a0were arrested<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What next?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In my view Senegal is a consolidated democracy. It has passed through three peaceful democratic transitions of power from a ruling party to the opposition.<\/p>\n

The optics of the present moment are certainly not good. But past experience suggests a new president could still come to office, either from the ruling party or from the opposition.<\/p>\n

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\n*Professor of Political Science , American Graduate School in Paris (AGS)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senegal\u2019s\u00a0President Macky Sall\u00a0announced\u00a0in early February that presidential elections, originally scheduled for 25 February, would be postponed indefinitely. The announcement has raised fears of popular protests, violent repression, a once democratic president transforming into an authoritarian ruler \u2013 and possibly even another coup d\u2019\u00e9tat in west Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"The Conversation","source_url":"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/macky-sall-throws-senegals-democratic-credentials-into-doubt-222923","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,35,27],"tags":[313,2067,283],"class_list":["post-10794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis-reports","category-ana-politics","category-west-africa","tag-macky-sall","tag-presidential-elections","tag-senegal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}