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Senegal |
ELECTIONS
After the presidential elections in 2000 and the parliamentary elections
in 2001, local elections are now taking place on 12 May, and these will
be busy days, in view of the multiple challenges they bear and the socio-political
atmosphere in which they are being held.
(This article was written at the
end of March 2002. There was a delay in publication for editorial reasons)
Lawyer Abdoulaye Wade is Senegal’s President. On 18 March, between two foreign trips, he received two of the opposition «heavyweights». This took place after a marathon trip around Senegal’s groundnut region, and just two months prior to the coming local elections (urban and rural). In making pre-election overtures to the Opposition, President Wade appears to be concerned about wishing to avoid serious problems for the candidates from his grouping, the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS). It looks like the President wants to avoid any unpleasant political surprises, especially during the electoral campaign and on polling day. (1) In fact, according to popular opinion, the conditions are right in the country and in the towns, for «a real change».
Expectations of the Senegalese people
A financial adviser, Adama Lam, wrote a perspicacious article in Wal Fadjri/L’Aurore, on 23 October 2000. Although written nearly two years ago, the article is still applicable today, and contributes to the manifestos produced by the opposition candidates for the electoral campaign. He wrote: «We should stop using the previous 40 years of socialist chaos as an excuse! We know enough now to be able to bring about change through the ballot box. What we want in the short-term is for clear principles to be stated, with the hope that profound changes will take place in the life of the Senegalese people.
«If we have the same people back (Editor’s note: Probably a reference to the «fair weather friends» who came back to the PDS after its victory) to start again, perhaps it’s because the old guard weren’t so bad and maybe there is nothing better. You can’t make new from old. There are real alternatives to consolidate democracy, encourage the winners to do better, and also teach the losers not fall back into the old ways if by chance they get back to business.
«It’s time to revise our criteria for choosing the people who govern us. The Senegalese who has nothing to boast about but a fine appearance, a highly-polished but essentially muddled speech, must give way to the competent, concise person who can cut through to the essentials, in order to give practical application to the many tasks and reports that are gathering dust in filing cabinets. The people want someone who will show them that competence, diligence and hard work will do away with vote-catching, which causes dumbing down and mediocrity».
Ranged in battle order
Nowadays, all the opposition parties make more or less the same speech, whether political or economic, social or cultural, as well as people from civil society — the great majority in most cases.
They all talk about the failures in Senegal’s agricultural regions during the last two years — failures which have been nothing short of «disastrous» and which have plunged the rural world into: A «serious famine»; «a privatisation programme which is going through a rough ride»; «ever more widespread, and deeply rooted poverty, with «greater numbers than ever being reduced to begging because they can’t get jobs»; «complaisance on the part of those who misappropriate public funds»; «an unacceptable form of lifestyle by our country’s new leaders»; «lip service paid to democracy»; «forthcoming local elections which look like being completely dishonest».
This is the continual refrain of opposition party leaders — both individuals, as well as leading coalition opposition groups within the Permanent Committee for Dialogue (CPC). These include leading lights of traditional Senegalese countryside policies: i.e.
- The «old soldiers» from what remains of Senghor’s and Abdou Diouf’s Socialist Party (PS).
- Then there’s well-known PS «turncoats» — people such as Moustapha Niasse and Djibo Leïty Kâ.
- And don’t let’s forget some «unsavoury» characters from the Senegalese leftwing guard.
- And what about the younger generation? Well, there’s Talla Sylla who, having just been appointed Parliament’s Deputy Speaker (because he’s leader of an opposition group), resigned from Parliament because of the «unhealthy atmosphere».
- Also to be included is the Movement for Socialism and Unity (MSU)’s present management team, led by the formidable debater, Tidjane Bâ.
This alliance has been set up in order to «fight the SOPI coalition government» (2), analyzing the situation whenever necessary and determining joint action. Although its members have slightly different attitudes, it has managed to produce single lists almost everywhere in the country for local elections, putting the need for solidarity ahead of their own concerns, after evaluating their mistake, admitted by the rest, of having gone into the previous April 2001 parliamentary elections as individual candidates.
Divided power
This was not the case for CAP 21 (i.e. the Presidential Coalition for the 21st Century) whose first acknowledged aim was to «have a quick retort ready for every opposition attack on Lawyer Wade’s actions. If we had not been attacked, we might perhaps have waited a little longer» (Editor’s note: To form this coalition), said Lawyer Wade, adding that «any creature who feels threatened, defends itself».
But CAP 21, had its cracks — even serious breaches in the composition of its lists for the elections. Alongside the official CAP lists, there were individual lists from the leaders of the member parties and members of this coalition. In the confrontation, there were no holds barred nor «tricks ruled out» (fixed fights), even the nomination of «crooks and incompetents», to quote Marie Angélique Savané.
Nonetheless, the stakes were so high that «there was a risk that these elections would become not just the business of professional politicians and the usual shady bunch involved in the political world», wrote Ibrahima Sall in the weekly review Nouvel Horizon. In this election, he sees these professionals «facing up to another category of citizens who want to be seen and heard during this tournament — civil society». Since this group was banned from submitting lists itself, its members joined the parties and coalitions of parties who were engaged in the struggle.
Keen interest and opportuneness
The keen interest being shown in these elections has a number of aspects, the most obvious being, on the one hand, the fact that they are the latest in a series of three elections involving changeover of parties, and on the other, that they carry high political, social and economic stakes. In other words, after this hurdle of 2002, the next elections are not planned for another four years (in 2006). As for the stakes, men and women able to handle power at ground-level must be appointed.
Decentralisation — in the form implemented in the last reforms just over five years ago, with the establishment of district authorities in urban areas and rural communities in the countryside — led to an official transfer of a number of competences (particularly education and health). In actual fact however, it involved transferring the exercise of power in these areas, from the central state administration to local authority administration. The people themselves (communities, groups, associations, individuals, etc.) had no share in this local administration. This is where the essential limitations of decentralisation are found, or even where it will fail. In other words, municipal and rural authorities wanted to do the same thing as a central administration, initiating their own development projects, instead of the base communities, but without major state resources.
A decisive choice
Both sides understand this. Each party is doing all it can to win the elections, since there are many opportunities to operate at ground level and thus control the electorate. At the same time, financial institutions are more and more inclined to fund concrete action by the people on the ground, since they have shown themselves to be reliable in managing funds allocated to them.
So if the Opposition, and its allies in civil society which can bring significant weight to bear on the political scene, should win the elections, they will counterbalance the executive and legislative bodies that are controlled entirely by President, Abdoulaye Wade and his allies. On the other hand, if Wade’s party and its (present) «buddies» are the winners, «the cycle will be complete»: conditions will be right for a return to the one-party state as before 2000, with the serious risks of a slide towards a «one-person State».
So it is Senegal’s future which is at stake in these local elections on the 12 May 2002.
(1)The candidates referred to are Mr Amath Dansokho, secretary-general of the Independence and Labour Party (PIT) and Parliament’s Deputy Speaker, heading a parliamentary group within Parliament, and Mr Iba Ndiaye Djadji, secretary-general of the powerful Single Democratic Teachers’ Union of Senegal (SUDES) and the African Confederation of Trade Unions (CSA). — (2) «SOPI» is Lawyer Wade’s slogan rather than that of his party. It means «change».
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