With pride, Saliou Seck brandishes his voter card as he leaves the Senegalese consulate in Paris and chants in the street his support for a candidate in his country’s presidential election. “I came to fulfill my right. For Sunday: fifth president, Amadou Ba! “, he told AFP, referring to the candidate of the government coalition, before disappearing in the middle of a continuous flow of Senegalese who came to collect their cards.
Aware of the issues after a serious crisis, the Senegalese diaspora is relieved to go to the vote, with the hope that it will take place calmly and then move on “to something else”. Sunday March 24, 7 million Senegalese are called to choose from among 19 competitors a successor to President Macky Sall, in power since 2012.
Aicha Diaby, a 28-year-old self-entrepreneur, discreetly leaves the consulate, electoral card in hand. “I really have to vote, it’s very important for the country and for me as a young person. I’m going to vote for change, we want to see another Senegal! », She said in reference to the “candidate for system change”, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, head of the opposition.
But, like several AFP interlocutors among the diaspora, Aicha Diaby confides with emotion that she is not “peaceful” a few days before the election. Because the first round of this presidential election is being held after a serious crisis. Macky Sall caused a shock by decreing, on February 3, a ten-month postponement of the election. Demonstrations left four dead. The Constitutional Council finally forced the executive to organize the election on March 24.
Since 2021, Senegal had already experienced episodes of deadly unrest caused by the standoff between opponent Ousmane Sonko and the government, combined with the vagueness maintained by Macky Sall regarding a third term and social tensions. Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds arrested.
“What does the diaspora want? It’s about going to the election and moving on to something else,” summarizes the consul general of Senegal in Paris, Amadou Diallo, who notes “political effervescence on each side.” According to the figures communicated by the latter, the number of Senegalese settled in France with a residence permit is around 200,000. But this figure reaches 1.1 million if we include dual nationals, again according to the consul. Some 81,000 people are registered to vote, he says.
“I campaign all the time.”
In recent weeks, supporters of the candidates have accelerated the campaign in France: distribution of leaflets in markets, door-to-door visits to residents, meetings with party section leaders, etc.
“I campaign all the time, I have flyers in my car all the time!”, says Issa-Isaac Ngom, 39, head of the Diomaye President coalition for the south of France, on the phone. We mobilized all weekend to tour all the markets in Marseille, the homes of [immigrant] workers, visits to families…” Among the members of the diaspora met in recent days, he says he felt “excitement that this momentous election is finally being held.”
An excitement shared by Lamine Seye, employee of the Senegalese restaurant Le Wiri Wiri, in Paris. At lunchtime in this month of Ramadan, the place is much less busy than usual. “I will go and vote, I will not let others vote for me! » He says he is “relieved” that the vote was held, but confides that he was “afraid that Senegal would capsize”. “I’m 30 years old and I’ve never experienced this: around fifty deaths! »
The Franco-Senegalese musician Neega Mass, who presents himself as a “committed Pan-African artist”, for his part “mobilized a lot to raise awareness” among his compatriots, pleading on social networks for “a new lease of life” and a president who would bring “employment for young people, education, health, purchasing power”.
Emile Bakhoum, 42, one of the leaders in France of the Alliance for the Republic (APR, Macky Sall’s party), says he is “very calm”. He welcomes the “start which allowed us to move towards a peaceful election”, even if he considers the deaths during the unrest and the material damage “regrettable”.
However, according to Issa-Isaac Ngom, this campaign remains marked by “a feeling of sadness, because a single loss of human life is one loss too many.” He denounces the “thousands of arrests” and the “hundreds of injured people, some of whom will have lifelong consequences”. “Senegal did not deserve this,” he laments.