• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
  • WORLD DEMOCRACY
  • POLITICAL ART
  • more
    • election technology
    • money politics
    • political dissidents
    • THIRD PARTY
      • third party central
      • green party
      • justice party
      • libertarian party
    • voting methods
  • DC INFO
    • author central
    • about
    • advertise with DC
    • contact
    • privacy policy

Democracy Chronicles

Senegal’s President Macky Sall Seeks 2nd Term

by DC Editors - February 24, 2019

FacebookTweetLinkedInPin1Share1
Senegal's President Macky Sall Seeks 2nd Term
President Macky Sall of Senegal – Image source

From Voice of America

Senegal’s President Macky Sall is counting on the success of his economic record to propel him to win a second term in Sunday’s elections.

Sall boasted he will win in the first round, without a runoff vote, though some critics say the two biggest threats to his re-election were barred from running.

This stable West African democracy has long been praised for its peaceful transfers of power, a rarity in a region better known for its history of coups and dictators.

Sall, who was elected in 2012, is running as “the builder of modern Senegal.” One billboard notes the 221 kilometers (137 miles) of roads created in his first term. A long-awaited gleaming international airport has opened under his watch that eventually will be connected to Dakar by high speed train.

Sall’s campaign caravan wove through the congested streets of Dakar as crowds lined the capital’s streets to greet his tour bus on Thursday. In the Medina neighborhood, a tailor furiously sewed up last minute dresses with fabric emblazoned with the president’s face. Music blared as the smell of meat wafted over the crowds from a nearby djibiterie, a traditional grill restaurant.

“He’s done a lot for Senegal, especially for the young people,” said Khady Mbaye, 49, dressed from head to toe in the Macky Sall fabric. “The water flows normally — we don’t have the outages like we used to.”

Mbaye says more of her relatives are working now than seven years ago and that’s what the president is hoping will allow him to win a second term Sunday without a runoff. If re-elected he will serve five years because the term has been shortened under the law.

Sall, 57, has claimed credit for creating some 491,000 jobs during his first term and is vowing to add 1 million more if elected to another term. The country’s annual GDP growth was 7.2 percent in 2017.

The opposition candidate seen as his biggest challenger, though, says too many Senegalese remain mired in poverty despite those gains. An untold number of young Senegalese men still seek economic migration to Europe and North Africa, often risking their lives in rickety boats across the sea or in sweltering trucks across the Sahara and never coming home.

“In the seven years of Macky Sall’s leadership, poverty has grown in Senegal,” Idriss Seck, a 59-year-old former prime minister, told supporters this week. He is widely believed to pose the greatest challenge to the incumbent — though he has run for president twice before and only garnered 8 percent of the vote last time in the first round.

A potential wildcard candidate is Ousmane Sonko, a 44-year-old former tax official who has galvanized young people with his promises of making government more accountable and transparent.

Makha Mbengue, 33, says he voted for Macky Sall in 2012 but would be casting his ballot for Idrissa Seck this time. Over the last seven years, Mbengue has married and now has a baby on the way. Still, he says he’s no better off than when Sall was elected — he’s still self-employed, running an upholstery cleaning business.

“The first time we had hope for him. He was going to change Senegal but once elected he was a disappointment,” Mbengue said.

Dakar, Senegal’s seaside capital, is home to U.N. offices, 4G internet and luxury beach hotels while much of rural Senegal is without electricity and travel is often by horse-drawn cart. Only 38.3 percent had access to electricity in rural areas as of 2016, according to World Bank statistics.

Whether the opposition can force Macky Sall into a second round will also depend on whether the four challengers can draw votes from the supporters of the two eliminated opposition figures.

Senegal’s constitutional council rejected the candidacy of Dakar’s popular former mayor Khalifa Sall, who is currently serving a five-year prison sentence on charges of misusing public funds. He and his supporters have called those charges politically motivated, designed to keep him from seeking the presidency.

Karim Wade, the son of Senegal’s former president whom Macky Sall defeated in 2012, also was blocked from running because the court said he wasn’t a registered voter. The younger Wade has been in self-imposed exile in Qatar since he was released from jail in 2016 after serving three years on corruption charges. He had been widely expected to run under the banner of his father Abdoulaye Wade’s party, which in the end did not field a candidate. The elder Wade has called for a boycott of the election, though his influence has waned since leaving office in April 2012.

Seyni Mbengue, 43, was a supporter of Khalifa Sall and now is backing Idrissa Seck or “Idy.” She blames the president for keeping her candidate out of the race and hopes he will be defeated.

“Macky Sall has dug his own grave because the opposition has regrouped against him,” she said.

FacebookTweetLinkedInPin1Share1

Filed Under: International Democracy Tagged With: Africa, Senegal, West Africa

About DC Editors

We are your source for news on the all important effort to establish and strengthen democracy across the globe. Our international team with dozens of independent authors are your gateway into the raging struggle for free and fair elections on every continent with a focus on election reform in the United States. See our Facebook Page and also follow us on Twitter @demchron.

Some highlighted Democracy Chronicles topics

Africa American Corruption American Local Elections American State Elections Asia Capitalism and Big Business Celebrity Politics China Democracy Charity Democracy Protests Democrats Dictatorships Education Election History Election Methods Election Security Election Transparency Europe Internet and Democracy Journalism and Free Speech Middle East Minority Voting Rights Money Politics New York City and State Elections Political Artwork Political Dissidents Political Lobbying Redistricting Republicans Russia Socialism and Labor Social Media and Democracy South America Spying and Privacy Supreme Court Third Party Voter Access Voter ID Voter Registration Voter Suppression Voter Turnout Voting Technology Women Voting Rights Worldwide Worldwide Corruption

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Home | ALL NEWS | WORLD | Senegal’s President Macky Sall Seeks 2nd Term

Primary Sidebar

Advertise button

The Christian Evangelical Church

By Jack Jones January 22, 2023

I am not against Big Business having a voice, just not all the voices, and especially not an impersonator pretending to speak for God.

No One In Monterey County Is Good Enough To Serve In Legislature

By Joe Mathews January 9, 2023

California’s “democratic reforms” have left a place as… [key] as Monterey County without any state representation from one of its own.

democracy chronicles newsletter

DC AUTHORS

In America, the Joe-mocracy Rules

By Joe Mathews December 27, 2022

A republic? A democracy? No, our country is an avuncular autocracy run by old guys named joe.

Property Rights, Indiana-Style

By Andrew Straw December 24, 2022

Indiana’s justices have replaced constitutional property rights with ad hominem politics. Replacing them starts with better governors.

To The American Oligarchs: Lay Off Us

By Jack Jones December 21, 2022

No matter how many jobs are ruthlessly pulled out from under us, we are still going to do what it takes to put food on the table.

Indiana’s Irrational Ballot Access System

By Andrew Straw December 4, 2022

Opposing the potential 2024 retention of the Chief Justice Loretta Rush will be key to preventing disability discrimination bad blood in Indiana courts.

Federal Judge Strikes Down Biden’s Loan Forgiveness program

By Jack Jones November 24, 2022

What is unlawful is the Texas federal judge’s decision to strike down President Biden’s loan forgiveness program, not the program itself.

DeSantis Battles Trump in Florida Steel Cage Match

By Steve Schneider November 20, 2022

We take you now to the much-anticipated DeSantis-Trump steel cage match, in which “DeSanctimonious” has promised to “kick Trump’s ass.”

Why Gambling Can’t Really Lose In California

By Joe Mathews November 2, 2022

When state voters approved an expansion of casino gaming, gaming interests assured us that gambling here would be governed by strict limits.

MORE FROM OUR AUTHORS

VISIT OUR POLITICAL ART SECTION:

dc political art

DEMOCRACY CULTURE

Girl Scouts Earn Democracy Badge At Workshop In Salina

Girl Scouts Earn Democracy Badge At Workshop In Salina

January 26, 2023

The workshop assisted Girl Scouts in grades K–10 in earning their Democracy Badge through learning activities on democracy.

Study: Media Can Reduce Polarization By Telling Personal Stories

Study: Media Can Reduce Polarization By Telling Personal Stories

January 26, 2023

Sharing personal experiences and pairing them with facts reduces political dehumanization and increases political tolerance.

Study: 2020 Election Resulted In Increased Anxiety And Depression

Study: 2020 Election Resulted In Increased Anxiety And Depression

January 7, 2023

A review of 2020 Household Pulse Survey data reveals that as an election nears, people in [America] report more depression and anxiety.

Key Iran Labor Sectors Launch Major Strikes

Charlie Hebdo Caricatures Iran’s Mullahs

January 7, 2023

The satirical weekly is publishing a special issue on Wednesday, January 4, mocking Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in support of the protests…

First Impressions Are Strongly Influenced By Political Partisanship

First Impressions Are Strongly Influenced By Political Partisanship

December 22, 2022

How we perceive strangers or the impressions we have about them, particularly their faces, is influenced by political partisanship.

MORE CULTURE

VISIT OUR US DEMOCRACY SECTION:

American Democracy