‘Left pan-Africanist’ Bassirou Diomaye Faye confirmed as Senegal’s new president-elect: What’s next? (Liberation News)
The 44-year-old Faye will be the youngest president of Senegal. His victory is considered an upset–Faye is a self-described “left pan-Africanist” and his pledge to pursue significant systemic reforms in the country has been well received, in particular by Senegalese youth. Faye won as an independent after his party, the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics, and Fraternity (PASTEF) was unilaterally dissolved in July 2023 in a crackdown on opposition protests by the incumbent government of President Macky Sall, as covered last year in Liberation News.
The leader of the party, Ousmane Sonko was arrested along with Faye and barred from running in the 2024 presidential election. Sonko and Faye, who had been arrested earlier in 2023, were released along with hundreds of other political prisoners on March 14–just ten days before the election. Their release was triggered by the Constitutional Court barring an attempt by incumbent President Macky Sall to postpone the elections over concerns about which candidates were legally eligible to run.
The court overturned this move, affirming that Sall must leave office on April 2. Sonko ran for president on the PASTEF ticket in 2019, receiving just over 15% of the vote. This year, Faye stepped in as the party’s candidate as Sonko’s legal eligibility remained in question and decisively won with 54.3% of the vote in the first round over incumbent Prime Minister Amadou Ba’s 35.8%.
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