A Divisive Election

 By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

In all too many countries, elections culminate in a “January sixth” – the day in 2021 when Donald Trump supporters who refused to accept the official result of the U.S. presidential election rioted in Washington. A recent African example of this comes from Senegal, on the west coast of the continent.

Senegalese President Macky Sall’s coalition United in Hope (Benno Bokk Yakaar) has lost its absolute majority in parliament by a single seat in the July 31 election, winning 82 of the National Assembly’s 165 seats, down from the 125 it gained in 2017.

The main opposition coalitions, Liberate the People (Yewwi Askan Wi) and Save Senegal (Wallu Senegal), running in an alliance, won 56 and 24 seats, respectively, for a total of 80. Save Senegal is led by ex-president Abdoulaye Wade.

The remaining three seats were split among smaller parties and coalitions.

FIRST BIG LOSS

This is the first time since independence in 1960 that a ruling party has lost an absolute majority in Senegal. For Sall, who has been accused by the opposition of wanting to break the two-term constitutional limit and run for president again in 2024, the disappointing legislative results could curb any such ambitions.

The president, who was elected in 2012 for seven years and re-elected in 2019 for five years, has so far remained vague about his future plans.

Sall’s supporters argue that changes to the constitution in 2016, which shortened presidential terms from seven to five years, reset the clock on his term limits, allowing him to run for another mandate in 2024.

Making the best of the loss, Sall praised the Senegalese people for the “exemplary nature of our democracy, the credibility of our electoral system.”

CLAIMS DISPUTED

Not everyone agreed. Senegal’s opposition leaders maintained that they had defeated the government coalition. Barthelemy Dias, head of Liberate the People, disputed the government’s claims.

“The people will respond,” he warned. “You lost this election at the national level. We will not accept it. This abuse will not pass,” said Dias, who is also the mayor of Dakar.

Widespread protests had erupted this past June in Dakar and around the country in the lead-up to the vote, when the candidate list for Liberate the People was thrown out by the constitutional council, leaving high-profile candidates such as Ousmane Sonko, a 2019 presidential contender, off the ballot.

Police were seen barricading Sonko’s house, preventing him from attending the demonstration. Three people were killed. Sonko had been arrested in March of 2021 on charges of rape; he has denied the allegations, calling his arrest politically motivated.

An estimated 14 people were killed and approximately 590 injured during demonstrations by his supporters, which were characterized by high levels of violence against protesters by security forces. Human rights organizations accused the police of using “excessive force.”

Liberate the People had to run a substitute list this July, largely composed of political outsiders.

Other opposition figures were also prevented from running, including Abdoulaye Wade’s own son Karim.

WIDESPREAD CORRUPTION

On Aug. 11, Liberate the People announced it would not appeal the election results.

“We think that there is no point in going to the Constitutional Council to lodge an appeal because it is not at the level of the Constitutional Council that these three deputies will be returned to us,” explained Dethie Fall.

Corruption remains a serious problem in Senegal, and high-level officials often act with impunity. Anticorruption laws are unevenly enforced and enforcement actions are sometimes viewed as politically motivated. Corruption cases are widely perceived as a means to neutralize the president’s most powerful opponents.

A controversial law enacted in January 2021 also allows for prison terms of up to two years for defamation and three years for publishing “fake news” likely to “discredit public institutions” or “prejudice public decency.”

“We are in a very volatile subregion. Democracy is at risk, and Senegal is supposed to be a beacon of democracy,” said Hawa Ba, head of the Senegal office at the Open Society Initiative for West Africa. “It’s supposed to be a country that’s pulling the region and the continent upwards. And what we are witnessing is Senegal’s democracy sliding back since a few years now.”

Political analyst Maurice Soudieck Dione told Agence France-Presse that “The ruling coalition is out of breath.”