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Last straight line before the local elections. The Senegalese are called to the polls on Sunday to elect their mayor and the presidents of the departmental council, during an election which has test value for President Macky Sall and his opponents. These elections are the first since the presidential election of 2019 which reappointed Macky Sall as head of the country and since the unrest which shook power in March 2021 and reinvigorated the opposition. A crucial issue for the capital, Dakar.
At the end of a campaign peppered with frequent but relatively minor clashes, the consultation which will take place on Sunday January 23 will make it possible to gauge the popularity of the coalition which has governed since 2012, five months before the legislative elections and two years before the end of the second term of Macky Hall. A major election for the capital Dakar, in the hands of the opposition for years.
In this electoral race for the town hall of Dakar, two favorite candidates face each other.
Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, Senegalese Minister of Health and candidate for the ruling presidential coalition, plays the strategy of proximity. As in Parcelles Assainies, the largest electoral commune in the capital, where he is campaigning: the candidate promises a more inclusive policy, safer neighborhoods and a cleaner capital.
>> To (re) see on France24.com: The interview: “Khalifa Sall, Senegalese political opponent and former mayor of Dakar: “I will be a candidate in 2024″‘
Facing him, Barthélémy Dias, second favorite of the municipal authorities in Dakar. The sulphurous opponent appears alongside Khalifa Sall, the deposed former mayor, who became ineligible after a court conviction. The opposition coalition is betting everything on “Barth” – as the people of Dakar call him – to keep the capital.
Smart city, green spaces, cleanliness, parking… the candidate’s program has its followers.
Doudou Wade, candidate of the PDS, party of the former president Abdoulaye Wade, Soham El Wardini, outgoing mayor and only female candidate, or Pape Diop, another former mayor of the city: a total of five other candidates are competing for mayor of Dakar.