Last month, Senegal which often praised as West Africa’s most stable democracy found itself in upheaval as tear gas from the police crept into boulevards and alleyways and smoke from protestors’ fires billowed skyward into the sky.
Police prevented several opposition leaders from leaving their residences, while others were detained for planning what the government considered to be unlawful protests. Authorities in southern Senegal have been accused of dispersing protesters using live ammunition. Students in Dakar stoned the police. Authorities closed off and barricaded streets. According to Amnesty International, three individuals died as protests shook the country.
The most recent rallies condemn the constitutional council of Senegal’s decision to omit the main opposition coalition’s candidate list from the ballot for this month’s legislative elections. Although prominent figures like Ousmane Sonko, who placed third in the 2019 presidential elections, won’t be on the ballot, the opposition will still be able to field alternate candidates.
However, there are more pressing political challenges that have beset Macky Sall’s administration since he took office in 2012.
In Dakar, protestors yelled, “Macky Sall is a dictator,” criticizing the presidency’s broad powers and the long history of political opposition being treated unfairly on ostensibly technical reasons.
The subsequent crackdown on the June protests drew criticism from both the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Association and Amnesty International, which stated in a statement that arbitrary arrests made during the June protests, repeated bans on public protests, and the deaths of protesters represent a real threat to the right to protest in Senegal.”
According to Maurice Toupane, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, a think tank based in Pretoria, “It’s a stable democracy in the African setting, in theory. But in practice, we could argue that Senegalese democracy is running out of breath. It’s essential to consider reform, he declared, particularly in light of the presidency’s influence over the legal and legislative systems. If we don’t implement reforms, we’ll be on the same path in 2024 when the next president is elected. It will be a never-ending circle.”
