His name is regularly cited alongside the tenors of the Senegalese political scene. However, Karim Wade shines more by his silence than by his media outbursts as the presidential election of February 25, 2024 approaches. Even the electoral reform which opened the doors to the next ballot in early August after years of ineligibility was not enough to bring him out of his reserve. No more than his revenge on the Court of Repression of Illicit Enrichment, finally abolished at the end of July.
This special jurisdiction was the symbol of the setbacks of the son of former President Abdoulaye Wade with the regime of his successor Macky Sall. She had him sentenced to six years in prison after years of contentious legal proceedings. The presidential pardon, which had been granted to him in June 2016, then his exile in Qatar had put an end to this descent into hell. But since then, the former all-powerful “minister of heaven and earth” has kept a low profile. Not to say ghostly.
As the ballot approaches, Karim Wade has still not clarified his intentions and the date of his return to Senegal is well kept. His rare interventions are limited to messages posted on his Facebook page or sent to journalists by the communication unit of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), his political party. A mystery that arouses curiosity, wants to believe its inner circle. Nafissatou Diallo, PDS communications officer, assures him: “We have hundreds of interview requests on the table. »
For those close to him, the 55-year-old former Minister of International Cooperation, Air Transport, Infrastructure and Energy wants above all to keep control of time. But the bet is risky seven months before the presidential election. “He has a lot of catching up to do and the time between us and the elections is not enough,” said a political journalist.
Not very popular with younger people
In the streets of Dakar, the image of the possible candidate is at best dull, at worst suspicious. Onlookers interviewed describe him as “uncharismatic who hasn’t tried to establish a connection with the people”, “not trustworthy”, but who “has a chance if Ousmane Sonko [the leader of the African patriots of Senegal for work, ethics and fraternity, Pastef] does not participate”. Imprisoned for several charges and on hunger strike for twenty-four days, the latter saw his chances of competing for the next presidential election compromised by two convictions, including one in June for two years.
Unlike Ousmane Sonko, Karim Wade is not very popular among younger people. “Those who were around 10 when he left are now of voting age, but they don’t know him well, nor [his father, former president] Abdoulaye Wade,” said political analyst Babacar Dione. . “He did not fully exploit the assets of social networks so that the Senegalese get used to his speech and his image”, he underlines
“Exile is political, he never stopped fighting,” retorts Lamine Ba, head of the PDS about Karim Wade’s years away from the local political scene. The party had presented him as its only choice in 2019, preferring to boycott the presidential election after the rejection of his candidacy by the Constitutional Council. Hard to imagine another option for the PDS in 2024.
However, the electoral performance of the son of the former president has so far been nothing short of breathtaking. In 2009, his desire to conquer the town hall of Dakar, a life-size test, turned into a fiasco. The lieutenants of his political movement created in 2006, the “Generation of the Concrete”, could hardly have done better. This will not prevent his father from having him enter the government a few weeks later, a symbol of a stubbornness which will be fatal to him according to several observers.
Surfing on the paternal aura
“If it hadn’t been for Karim, Abdoulaye Wade would have been elected even with the third term”, storms a former PDS executive now a member of the presidential majority, who had publicly called for the dissolution at the time. of the Concrete Generation, a “structure that functioned as a party”. “History has proven me right, today they’ve all left,” he said of son Wade’s former relatives, many of whom have come to power. Some stayed and “joined the party authorities”, nuance Lamine Ba, former member of this “support movement”.
If he ends up taking the plunge, Karim Wade will have to deal with a device built by twelve years of power but weakened by the departure of several historical executives. However, the party has a few strongholds, notably in Touba, stronghold of the Muslim brotherhood of the Mourides, where Macky Sall has never managed to impose himself.
The Wallu Senegal coalition, led by the PDS with a few long-time allies, is also the third political force in Parliament in part thanks to an alliance of convenience during the last legislative elections with the country’s main opposition coalition, Yewwi Askan Wi. The latter herself saw troubled times after her separation from Taxawu Senegal, the political movement of Khalifa Sall, one of its founding members.
In this balance of power within the Senegalese political class redefined by Macky Sall’s decision not to run for a third term, Karim Wade can hope to surf on the paternal aura, hoping that his years of exile have contributed to shaping the same image of martyr that Abdoulaye Wade had built in his years of opposition. “Some people think it will be complicated if he doesn’t come early, but I think he is copying his father’s winning comeback strategy in 2000,” said Babacar Dione. Abdoulaye Wade had been absent voluntarily for many months before returning to the country as the presidential election approached, which he had won in front of the outgoing president.
