But even more astonishing was the election result, which resulted in a landslide victory in the first round for opposition candidate Bassero Diomai Faye, who was released from prison just ten days before the election, and a week after the start of the election campaign.
On Monday, Senegalese President Macky Sall congratulated Diomai Faye on his victory in the first round of the presidential elections, and his main rival and ruling coalition candidate, Amadou Ba, acknowledged defeat and called Diomaye Faye to congratulate him on the victory.
From prison to minors
- The new president was the youngest of the 19 candidates, and he was only 44 years old.
- He spent 11 months in the “Cap Manual” prison in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, where he was thrown in prison last April on charges of contempt of court and insulting the judiciary, to join the leaders of his “Pasteif” party, which was banned only two months later.
- He was released from prison following a general amnesty issued by President Sall in the context of an attempt to calm the political scene at the end of his term, accompanied by his party leader, Ousmane Sonko, and other leaders.
- Fay belongs to the Ambour region (western Senegal), specifically to the agricultural village of Ndiaganyaw, where he lived part of his childhood and adolescence, before obtaining high school in 2000, after which he joined Cheikh Anta Job University (the largest Senegalese university), from which he obtained a master’s degree in law in 2004.
- He then joined the National School of Administration and graduated after three years to become an employee in the Tax and Real Estate Department, where he met his friend Othman Sonko.
- In 2014, he and his friend co-founded the Bastif Party.
- Basiri took over the party's general secretariat and the file of Senegalese abroad, and his numerous tours in Europe in particular enabled him to mobilize support and political and financial support for the party, which in a short period was able to gain the lion's share of the support of the youth masses in his country.
Serendipity option
- Ousmane Sonko led the “Patriots for Action, Ethics and Fraternity” party, known by the abbreviation “ASTPV,” and previously ran in the 2019 elections as a competitor to the president and came in third place.
- In 2021, he was accused of rape, but he pleaded not guilty and described the accusations as malicious. There were widespread protests in Senegal at that time, which were renewed with Macky Sall’s attempts to postpone the elections.
- After the Constitutional Council decided to remove Sonko from the list of candidates due to a judicial ruling against him, the choice fell on Diomai Faye, who was in turn in prison, as a candidate for the party, and thus the man, who had no previous experience in running political elections, moved to the president of one of the most prominent democracies. In Africa.
- Ousmane Sonoko managed his battle with the government with political acumen, and his adoption of Diomay Fay’s candidacy was the cornerstone in winning the highest political position in Senegal. He attended all electoral events and directed his supporters’ votes in favor of Diomay Fay, and benefited from the mistakes of the outgoing president at the political level and the difficulties of the economy to lead an electoral campaign. It seems it paid off.
From an unknown citizen to the presidency
Political science researcher Idris Ayat says, “When Fay assumed the position of Secretary-General of the party after Sonko was arrested by order on the grounds of rape accusations, Pastev party planners saw in the rape case an opportunity to strengthen their position, uniting the ranks of the opposition and preparing for the legislative elections in 2022, which witnessed an impressive victory.” The opposition won 56 seats within the framework of the “People's Liberation” coalition.
Ayat adds, “By the 2024 elections, and after the decision to dissolve the Bastif party and prevent Sonko from running, Faye was put in prison on multiple charges. Last January, when the Constitutional Council published the final list of candidates, Sonko’s name was not included, which was not surprising considering “The legal battles he fought. However, Sonko had an alternative plan, where he ran for his companion Faye, who was in prison and was released on March 14 with a presidential pardon, in order to calm the country.”
He continued, “The Senegalese people, who were previously qualified to embrace the programs of the Pastif Party, have not forgotten the harsh years of Macky Sall's regime, and through numerous demonstrations and the sacrifice of many lives in defense of the principles of Sonko and his party, the Senegalese have embraced these principles as a way for Senegal to regain its position.”
He pointed out that “Bassero and his ally Sonko left no path but they took it to consolidate their program at the ballot boxes, through peaceful and even violent protest, to using the judiciary and finding clear strength in the media presence and optimal exploitation of social media. We were able to present a program that reflects the vision of the younger generation, which… He did not experience colonialism and sought to remove its effects and develop Senegal within new frameworks, and thus, the people gave their trust to Basseiro Fay, so that he transformed from an unknown citizen into the leader of the country.”
Joint rule
In turn, the researcher in West African affairs, Charles Asigbo, says that Diomai Faye’s victory paves the way for the rest of the continent’s countries and the political forces in neighboring countries to seek to reach power by peaceful means away from the scourge of coups that strike the countries of the continent, and this confirms the ability of the peaceful opposition to bring about change. Real, based on a political project that has a popular support.
Asigbo added to Sky News Arabia that the trial of Diomai Faye and Sonko has become a special case that is being looked at with admiration by neighboring countries, and this was evident from the strong welcome on social media for the victory of Diomai Faye, the opposition candidate who served prison time and was only released a few days before. elections, to run a short electoral campaign that achieved a landslide victory in the first round.”
Regarding the future of government, he believes, “It is expected that Sonko, a charismatic Pastev leader, will assume the position of prime minister in the next government, similar to the experience of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev before, and that Sonko will have a major presence in decision-making and managing the helm of Senegal in the period.” Coming.
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