She had badgered her family and friends to steer them to vote for a significant change of presidency. And on Friday, Aminata Faye, 22, stood on the entrance of a stadium in Senegal, within the metropolis of Mbour, ready to listen to the opposition politician who had impressed her — and his presidential candidate — within the final cease in a breakneck marketing campaign.
“They’re the one ones saying they’re going to vary the system,” mentioned Ms. Faye, a school pupil.
The West African nation of Senegal votes for a brand new president Sunday, in an election that many younger folks see as an opportunity to overtake the political and financial order. And it has been a nail-biting run-up.
Final month, the incumbent president, Macky Sall, had known as off the election with solely three weeks to go. Then he agreed to carry it in spite of everything. And out of the blue, final week, he launched from jail the pugnacious opposition determine many see as his nemesis — Ousmane Sonko — together with the person Mr. Sonko is backing for president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
The whiplash-inducing twists and turns have left many Senegalese relieved that the election is occurring in any respect, and that to date their extensively lauded democracy seems to be nonetheless intact.
Whereas there are 19 candidates in all, many specialists assume the election will go to a runoff between Mr. Faye and the governing get together candidate, Prime Minister Amadou Ba. It’s prohibited to publish opinion polls in Senegal throughout election season, so there may be nothing concrete to point who’s favored win.
However ask most younger individuals who they’re supporting, and they’ll point out Mr. Sonko, whose title isn’t even on the poll.
1000’s of younger folks flowed into the Mbour stadium to see him on Friday night, the air filling with the honk of vuvuzelas. Binta Cissé, a 30-year-old cleaner, regarded round on the sea of T-shirts bearing the faces of Mr. Sonko and his candidate, Mr. Faye, a 43-year-old former tax inspector.
“We will see ourselves in them,” Ms. Cissé mentioned.
The campaigning has occurred at a breakneck tempo, and through Ramadan, when most individuals on this predominantly Muslim nation quick throughout the day. At night time, political convoys rushed by way of the sandy alleyways of Dakar, the coastal capital, pumping out music and slogans and distributing fliers. Posters bearing politicians’ beaming faces had been swiftly pasted up on roadside billboards.
The prime minister, Mr. Ba, hurriedly give up his place to go on the marketing campaign path. Mr. Sonko’s protégée, Mr. Faye, instantly hit the street after getting out of jail. He had been held on defamation expenses and contempt of court docket, after he accused magistrates of persecuting Mr. Sonko.
A rustic on the African continent’s westernmost tip, Senegal has watched as a few of its neighbors — like Mali, to the east, and Guinea, to the south — have been overtaken by coups in recent times.
However Senegal, observers say, is totally different.
It has by no means had a coup d’état. The nation’s highly effective Sufi brotherhoods — Muslim communities guided by revered religious leaders — are seen as a stabilizing force. Its army prides itself on staying out of politics.
Consultants say that whereas Senegal has been badly damaged by Mr. Sall’s authoritarian turn, the nation’s status as a democratic outpost in a crisis-hit area has held.
However Senegal faces most of the similar issues which have bedeviled its neighbors in West Africa — akin to persistent poverty, an schooling deficit, and an absence of jobs, significantly for younger folks. These are the problems this election is prone to activate — and a significant motive Mr. Sonko has garnered such a robust youth following.
During the last decade, 35-year-old Lamine Ndao has watched Senegal’s economic system develop below Mr. Sall’s administration — massive oil and fuel fields have lately been found, and main infrastructure tasks accomplished. However he has been left behind, he mentioned.
For 10 years, ever since he acquired a level in tourism from a college in Dakar, he’s been on the lookout for a job. And most of his associates are in the identical scenario, he mentioned — besides those who joined the political get together in energy.
“When you have political connections, you may work,” he mentioned as he watched gleaming SUV’s drive by on certainly one of Dakar’s busiest roads a couple of days earlier than the election. “Do you discover that truthful? It’s not.”
Younger folks like Mr. Ndao had been pivotal in assuring Mr. Sall’s ascent to the presidency.
Mr. Sall’s predecessor, Abdoulaye Wade, started as a stalwart defender of democracy who promised change and ran for president 4 occasions earlier than he was elected — twice. Then he ran for a 3rd time period in 2012, arguing that the constitutional two-term restrict didn’t apply to him. However a energetic youth motion persuaded a whole bunch of 1000’s of younger Senegalese to go to the polls, and Mr. Wade misplaced to Mr. Sall.
Twelve years later, this February, many Senegalese mentioned they had been astounded to see Mr. Sall attempt to name off the election. They had been additionally surprised to see the scenes from Parliament, the place police threw out opposition lawmakers in order that the invoice confirming the cancellation could possibly be pushed by way of.
Mr. Ndao, the unemployed faculty graduate, voted for Mr. Sall in 2012. In 2019, he mentioned he felt so disillusioned that he didn’t hassle to vote. He mentioned that whereas he desires to construct his life in Senegal, he has been contemplating risking his life on a rickety boat to Europe, or following the 1000’s of West Africans now attempting emigrate to america on circuitous routes via Nicaragua.
He hoped it wouldn’t come to that, he mentioned: He and all his associates are pinning their hopes on the person who has made a profession out of excoriating elites, accusing distinguished politicians of corruption and promising change: Mr. Sonko.
No one can vote for Mr. Sonko, who was barred from working after being convicted of defamation and of corrupting a minor, after a younger therapeutic massage parlor worker accused him of rape. So they’ll vote for Mr. Faye as a substitute, Mr. Ndao mentioned.
As the sunshine pale over Ouakam, a Dakar suburb, on Tuesday night, younger volunteers from Mr. Sonko’s get together handed out free dates and low to Muslims breaking the quick.
Bassirou Faye, a 24-year-old bus driver who coincidentally shares the title of the presidential candidate for Mr. Sonko’s get together, mentioned that he wasn’t fascinated with Mr. Sonko in any respect within the 2019 election. Mr. Sonko got here in third, with 16 p.c of the vote.
However this time, Mr. Faye mentioned, he would journey the 100 miles to his dwelling metropolis of Bambey simply to vote for Mr. Sonko’s candidate.
“Due to all of the injustice he has confronted, I began following and supporting him,” he mentioned.
Mr. Faye and Mr. Sonko have promised main financial adjustments, like renegotiating oil and fuel contracts, and reforming or leaving the regional foreign money, which is pegged to the euro.
Analysts say this will scare Senegal’s international traders and stall financial progress.
Supporters of Mr. Ba mentioned he was a secure pair of fingers who would proceed on the identical regular trajectory as Mr. Sall, whom many understand as having overseen orderly progress.
“He’s calm and serene,” mentioned Valéry Kalidou Bonang, a 35-year-old entrepreneur from Kedougou, in Senegal’s east. He mentioned he wished to see the continuation of Mr. Sall’s program of constructing infrastructure and enhancing residing circumstances, generally known as Rising Senegal. “But it surely’s not a query of the particular person. It’s a query of the challenge.”
Mr. Ndao, the tourism graduate, mentioned his father was voting for Mr. Ba, together with many older individuals who would rise up early and go vote, he mentioned, whereas many younger folks didn’t even have voters’ playing cards.
“Younger individuals are those who want change,” he mentioned. “The previous ones are on their method out.”
