Senegalese voters cast their ballots on Sunday in presidential elections that incumbent President Macky Sall is widely expected to win in the first round. His main challengers were banned from running following corruption convictions, leaving voters with a limited choice in a five-horse race.
“I like to vote early, afterwards I’ll go back home and wait peacefully,” voter Lamine Gaye, told RFI at a polling station in Dakar’s Biscuiterie district.
“My vote is secret,” said Diéthé Faye, a driver, who arrived at the same polling station at 6 o’clock in the morning so that he could get on with his day. “What I expect from a president is that he is a good father.
Faye described the election as part of people’s civic duty. “The more voters we have, the more credible the result will be,” Faye added.
Limited field
President Sall’s two main challengers – ex-mayor Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade, the son of the former president – were barred from running in the elections over convictions for corruption. However, there were questions raised over the legitimacy of the judicial process.
Rights groups Amnesty International said there was a “lack of independence” in the case against Khalifa Sall and highlighted “unfair trials”. Both Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade complained that the charges against them were designed to rule them out of standing for election.
President Sall, who came to power in 2012, told supporters during campaigning that his victory in the first round of the polls is “indisputable”.
The president has made infrastructure a pillar of his first term with investment in a new airport, highways and a railway link. Though his rivals criticise his infrastructure spending as a waste of taxpayers’ money and raise concerns about increasing government debt.
His main challengers are former prime minister Idrissa Seck, Issa Sall of the Unity and Assembly Party (PUR), former justice and foreign minister Madicke Niang and Ousman Sonko, a former tax inspector who became an MP.
Provisional results from the polls are expected shortly after polling closes at 18:00 local time with the official announcement expected a day or two later. The winning candidate must secure more than 50 per cent of the votes in the first round to avoid a run-off.
Possibility of second round
Risk management company Songhai Advisory said Senegalese voters would “make history” if they voted out Sall after one term office.
“Sall’s pedigree as the only candidate having led the country as president, could be a blessing or curse,” said Songhai Advisory, in analysis seen by RFI.
“Support for Sall is split and the vote will likely go to a second round,” according to the risk management firm, referring to Sall’s numerous roles in public office resulting in a number of long-standing critics who are unforgiving of his track record as president.
Some 6.7 million people are eligible to vote for the polls and a second round if necessary is scheduled to take place on 24 March.
