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to be held on January 23. The ballot, postponed several times and scheduled for January 23, is the first since the re-election of Macky Sall in 2019. The mandates of the mayors of 557 municipalities and departmental councilors, in place since 2014, will be called into play.
With our correspondent in Dakar, Charlotte Idrac
The campaign opens against a backdrop of a sharp rise in Covid cases. Will she be disturbed by the fourth wave? No such indication at this stage.
In fact, on the ground, the campaign had already started in recent weeks in many localities. Meetings, gatherings, door-to-door, the candidates still have two weeks to convince. Mayors will be elected – and this is a novelty – by universal suffrage.
The battle of Dakar
Main stake: the town hall of Dakar, today controlled by the opposition. This is THE capital battle. The majority relies on Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, Minister of Health. Opposite, no less than six candidates, including Barthélémy Dias for Yewwi Askan Wi, the coalition led by Khalifa Sall and Ousmane Sonko. As for the Wallu Senegal coalition around the PDS, it chose Doudou Wade.
The suburbs of Dakar, a large reservoir of voters, is a major stake for the various coalitions. In Guédiawaye, which has nearly 400,000 inhabitants and five municipalities, the town hall is headed by Aliou Sall, the little brother of the Head of State, candidate for his re-election. Among the voters’ priorities: employment, mobility and good governance.
Launch of the campaign in Guediawaye
Suspected of corruption in the award of oil and gas contracts in 2019, Aliou Sall was finally exonerated by the Senegalese justice at the end of 2020.
Local elections, national test
Ousmane Sonko is for his part a candidate for mayor of Ziguinchor. The president of the Pastef party has already made a lot of noise proposing a local currency in Casamance. The game promises to be open also in Saint-Louis, where the outgoing mayor – also the president’s brother-in-law – Mansour Faye, will face former minister Mary Teuw Niane, from the same party.
These local elections will make it possible to update the political balance of power in Senegal and will have the value of a national test, for the majority as for the opposition. This will be a first step before the legislative elections announced for the month of June.
Will the results be decisive in deciding the debate on a possible candidacy of Macky Sall for a third term, as suggested by his chief of staff, Mahmoud Saleh? ” It has no connection “, Replied the Head of State last month in his itw to RFI and France 24 on December 8, speaking of a” big clumsiness ».
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