2024-03-25 16:50:28
Amadou Ba, government candidate, conceded his defeat in the presidential election in Senegal on Monday in favor of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, an anti-system opponent. At 44 years old, this disciple of the opponent Ousmane Sonko, who was still in prison ten days ago, would thus become the youngest president of Senegal.
Published on: 03/25/2024 – 5:50 p.m. Modified on: 03/25/2024 – 6:07 p.m.
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He wanted to be a “candidate for system change” in Senegal. At 44, Bassirou Diomaye Faye is well on his way to winning the presidential election following the government candidate Amadou Ba conceded defeat on Monday March 25.
The partial results published in the media and on social networks place Bassirou Diomaye Faye clearly ahead of his main rival, and very far ahead of the others.
While he has never held any elected office, in November 2023 he was appointed candidate to replace Ousmane Sonko, of whom he was the second at the head of the African Patriots of Senegal party for work, ethics and the fraternity (Pastef) dissolved a few months earlier by the authorities.
Imprisoned since April 2023 for contempt of court, defamation and acts likely to compromise public peace, Bassirou Diomaye Faye nevertheless missed a large part of the official campaign which opened on March 9. He was even prevented from recording his election propaganda messages for public television.
But he was finally released on March 15, nine days before the first round of the presidential election, following the adoption of an amnesty law wanted by President Macky Sall.
Inseparable from Ousmane Sonko
“Diomaye mooy Ousmane” (“Diomaye is Ousmane”). These were the words of supporters, in Wolof, during the presidential campaign. For them, Bassirou Diomaye Faye and the opponent Ousmane Sonko are inseparable. “Bassirou, it’s me,” also said regarding his lieutenant Ousmane Sonko, third in the presidential election in 2019 and ineligible in 2024 following three years of standoff with power.
Coming from a modest farming family, Bassirou Diomaye Faye took the Ena (national administration school) entrance exam in Senegal. Having become a tax inspector, he met Ousmane Sonko at Taxes and Domains. “Diomaye” followed him to the Autonomous Union of Tax and Land Agents which he had created. He then joined Pastef, of which he was first a Alex Reed before becoming a key figure and secretary general, according to the party, which describes him as “a brilliant mind”, “cold in analysis” . Sensing the disqualification of Ousmane Sonko in the presidential election, their camp made him its champion.
“They are two sides of the same coin with two different styles,” describes Moustapha Sarr, a trainer for Pastef activists.
Ousmane Sonko, 49, was the undisputed candidate for the Pastef party which he helped create in 2014 with young people saying they were foreign to politics. His disqualification in January by the Constitutional Council brought out from his shadow his second, the much more discreet Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
New generation
Often dressed in a traditional white boubou, of medium height, wearing a goatee under his youthful face, Bassirou Diomaye Faye appeared on stage during his last electoral rally in the company of his two wives, a first for a Senegalese president.
Against hyper-presidentialism, this practicing Muslim presents himself as the incarnation of a new generation of politicians. He highlights his pan-African values, his desire to preserve the sovereignty of his country, to distribute wealth more fairly and to reform a justice system that he considers corrupt. To mark his “transparency”, he published his declaration of assets on the last day of the campaign.
He also promises to renegotiate oil and fishing contracts and says he is not afraid to leave the CFA franc, including going as far as creating a new national currency, a measure that his opponent Amadou Ba denounced as a economic “nonsense”.
His rivals accuse him of being at the head of “adventurers” ready to pursue a policy of dangerous rupture in a country renowned for its stability in West Africa.
Bassirou Diomaye Faye presents himself as someone “particularly reasoned, particularly reasonable, particularly sensible, particularly thoughtful”.
After voting on Sunday, he called for a “definitive return to serenity” in Senegal “which has been seriously disrupted” in recent years.
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