Young Senegalese assert their power in defense of democracy

Senegal’s young people have reclaimed their democracy.

Last week’s election, which saw Bassirou Dionaye Faye clinch victory in the first round, was a remarkable display of defiance by a generation that has claimed their future.

They refused to back down in the face of intense repression, including the use of deadly force and mass arrests. They chose the Constitution as their shield and stood firm in their insistence on the rule of just law.

And they demonstrated their hopes for a more open society and accountable system of governance through a peaceful vote that was nearly snatched from them.

The result also serves as a rebuke to those who were quick to predict that Senegal’s decades-old democracy would become yet another potential casualty of an unconstitutional change of government in West Africa.

Senegal was thrown into a political crisis three years ago by a president who sought to preserve himself in power, sparking violent protests that were met by a fierce crackdown, including the arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and the dissolution of his Pastef party.

Bowing to popular pressure, President Macky Sall reluctantly agreed last July not to pursue a third term, but then in February stirred outrage by announcing the election would be delayed until December, a move deemed by many to constitute an unconstitutional attempt to extend his term.

With the rise of authoritarianism globally, the people of Senegal have demonstrated what effective political practices imbued with democratic values can look like.

Senegalese society rallied together, discovering rare unity among fisherfolk, academics, lawyers, activists, trade unionists and clergy from multiple faiths – all demanding the Constitutional Council set the country back on a path to elections.

Three landmark rulings

It was a test for Senegal’s judiciary, which had for years seen its authority in the eyes of the public eroded amid allegations that it was yielding to government pressure.

Lower courts drew criticism for convicting opposition leaders, including Faye and Sonko, on defamation charges that appear to have been motivated by a desire to eliminate them electorally.

The Constitutional Council met the moment commendably, fulfilling its role as a check on executive powers.

Three landmark rulings, which will serve as valuable jurisprudence elsewhere on the continent, cleared the way for the continuity of Senegal’s unbroken democracy.

In February, the Council struck down the decree postponing the elections. A second ruling rejected a proposal to hold the elections in June, making clear that the date fell beyond the mandate of the current presidency. A third set the date for the election, limiting the extended tenure of Sall’s presidency. 

The combination of pressure on the streets, the strength of civil society’s mobilization, and the Council’s upholding of the constitution made an election inevitable.

The scale of Faye’s victory, following a mere ten-day election period, meant that a second-round vote that could have been obstructed was unnecessary.

With their decisive votes, the young Senegalese at the heart of this movement made clear the future they want for their country. Sixty per cent of the country’s population is 25 or under.

This is a generation deeply disillusioned with the persistence of older politicians who are unwilling to share power and remain indifferent to their needs.

Mood for change

They were driven onto the streets in part by anxieties about their future. Despite steady economic growth, a fifth of young Senegalese are unemployed.

They see the country’s wealth being drained by a small group, mocked as “tenderpreneurs,” for the government deals they receive.

But they also came out to seize what they said was their sovereignty – as proud citizens of a democratic republic, as a nation weary of the lingering influence of its colonial past, and as Africans who want to forge stronger bonds with the rest of the continent.

Faye, like Sonko before him, capitalised on this mood for change. The former tax inspector suddenly rose from obscurity, was thrown into prison until just 10 days before the election, and will now take his place as Africa’s youngest elected leader.

The desire for a “rupture”, as Faye described the result, has marked transfers of power across generations in West Africa, where recent coup makers are also in their forties.

In Senegal, a democratic path was still open to its young people, held in place by its weakened but enduring institutions.

Faye’s vows to tackle corruption, tame the powers of the presidency, review fishing, oil and gas agreements, and restore accountability all spoke to them.

An equitable, inclusive and transparently run economy is a central feature of the new Senegalese leadership’s vision of a democracy and sovereignty. 

In different parts of the world, we see how demographic changes are unsettling outdated political orders.

Last month, millions of young Pakistanis similarly overturned expectations in an election that almost didn’t take place.

Human rights violations

Unprecedented repression couldn’t stop them from voting for a controversial and charismatic politician who, like Sonko, was imprisoned on trumped-up charges and whose party was banned.

To manifest their opposition, new voters are prepared to back unlikely, untested or even undesirable leaders because their defiance mirrors their own.

The repudiation of a discredited political class does not necessarily lead to a more effective one. Faye has acknowledged the next government must proceed with humility.

The euphoria that swept Senegal this past week will soon lift to reveal a country that needs to resolve the multiple tensions that produced this political moment: the stark imbalance of relations between the state and society, between the structure of the economy and its skewed beneficiaries, and between the people who have been bitterly divided by the crisis of the past three years.

An early test of the new president will be whether he can heal some of those divisions by delivering on his campaign’s commitments to justice.

Amnesty laws that were introduced by the last government were criticized because they spared those who responsible for serious human rights violations on all sides.

The Senegalese people are owed the truth about the deadly riots of 2021 and 2023 – about who was behind the looting and the vandalism that scarred their streets, but also who ordered the harassment, the arrests, the torture, and the killings.

Without accountability, there will be no break from the past, and the trust of this new generation will prove elusive. The young voters who have shaken their political system will not settle for weak compromises, nor will they forgive broken promises.

They are insisting upon a reimagining of their democracy – and they will be just as unsparing of the next government that fails them.  It’s a hopeful moment, notwithstanding the fragility.

Binaifer Nowrojee is the incoming President of Open Society Foundations