In Senegal, the provisional results of the presidential election, won on Sunday 24 March by the candidate backed by the anti-establishment politician Ousmane Sonko, will be known “by next Friday.”
Interior Minister, Mouhamadou Makhtar Cisse, who was appointed a fortnight ago to organise Senegal’s presidential election, praised the smooth conduct of last Sunday’s vote which opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye won.
Despite the disputes and uncertainties surrounding the electoral process following a month-long
interruption, Cisse noted that it had not been difficult for his ministry’s officials to organise the election in the space of about twenty days.
“This is a sign of democratic maturity. We are fortunate to have a republican administration, with a very strong tradition of democracy. When you are appointed, even for 15 or 20 days, and you are aware of the system, you just have to be intelligent enough to manage it, take charge of it and put your own personal touch to it, without trying to upset anything. It’s a tried and tested process,” explains the former chief of staff to outgoing President Macky Sall in an interview with TV5 Monde.
The 44-year-old anti-system candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who was nominated by popular opposition leader Ousmane Sonko to lead the PASTEF party’s sovereign project after the constitutional court banned the mayor of Ziguinchor (south) from standing, won the presidential election in the first round on 24 March 2024 with more than 53 percent of the vote, according to the main trends.
While awaiting the proclamation of the provisional results “by Friday,” by the National Commission for the Vote Count (CNRV), headed by the President of the Dakar Court of Appeal, the Minister of the Interior said he was “proud of the Senegalese people, who have expressed themselves freely,” adding that he felt “a sense of relief
and happiness.”
Macky Sall, a “composed and wise” man
A great deal of pressure was brought to bear on the organisation of this election, initially scheduled for 25 February 2024, before the process was interrupted for a month by parliament and the executive.
The constitutional court intervened each time to remind the electorate that the poll had to be held before 2 April 2024, the deadline for the term of office of the outgoing head of state Macky Sall, who is not standing for a third term after twelve years in power.
“Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s election is uncontested. He obtained an absolute majority of votes. The turnout was around 62 percent. This is a little less than in 2019, when we had an exceptionally high rate of 65 percent. But it is much better than in the last legislative and local elections (held in 2022), when we had a turnout of less than 50
percent,” stressed Mouhamadou Makhtar Cisse, who paid tribute to Macky Sall despite the harsh criticism directed at him after the interruption of the process leading to the presidential election.
“I was able to observe his sense of duty, his serenity and his wisdom, which enabled us to emerge from this situation, which may have seemed confusing. But for us, it was simply a dialogue between the various
institutions of our country. We were almost attacked. It’s a great injustice, because Senegal’s vocation is to remain a democratic country”, said the Inspector General of State, whose appointment as Minister of the Interior has received a lot of favourable feedback from various players, including the opposition.
A president “prepared for duty”
Mouhamadou Makhtar Cisse now wishes the 5th president of Senegal, who is due to be sworn into office in the next few days and probably before 2 April, “peace, health”, “success” and “a great deal of serenity and lucidity in taking the best possible decisions for the Senegalese people,” considering that “the job of president of the republic is extremely complicated.”
However, to those who doubt Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s experience of holding presidential office, the Minister of the Interior replies that “you don’t become President of the Republic by chance.”
Trained at the ‘Ecole nationale d’Administration (ENA) who became Secretary General of the PASTEF party, Senegal’s new head of state “is prepared for the task and the mission,” Mr. Cisse said, assuring citizens that President Diomaye Faye “is a product of senior administration who knows the workings of the state to do the rest.”
ODL/ac/fss/as/APA