While we are a democracy, we are certainly a relatively new and still growing democracy. It is then reassuring to see that at a time when our neighbors are sinking into coups d’état, the country can organize two elections in six months without major contestation.

We owe this success, which millions of Africans would be envious of, to our founding fathers, to the long democratic struggles waged by political parties and civil society since 1960. This legacy has allowed the Senegalese people to be demanding on electoral matters.

We must also give credit to the State’s civil servants for the organization of the ballot. The public agents, both neutral or with the ruling party, are the pride of our country by their competence, their rigor and their high sense of statesmanship. This is why I found shocking the accusation of some political leaders regarding the falsification of their list by the General Directorate of Elections. Adversity in politics does not excuse everything. To be a republican is to step out of one’s self, to forget one’s idiosyncrasy and to see every citizen as his fellow man, and above all, to be ready to go against one’s own interests for the country’s sake. The need to preserve the sacredness of the Republic must rise above political quarrels.

The election results, without going into their detailed analysis and their consequences in the democratic stakes, constitute a political earthquake in Senegal. Never before has the democratic opposition garnered such support in Senegal during legislative elections. And in the same vein, never before has an outgoing parliamentary majority been disavowed so loudly. The time for their political scolding will certainly come. But already, we must welcome the fact that the actors concerned all seem to accept the sincerity of the vote and the reliability of the process that led to this result. This is in spite of the dispute that has arisen over two or three departments for which we will have to wait for the final results, as victory is claimed by both of the main coalitions in the race.

From 2022 onwards, the political class should put an end to the ridiculous quarrels over the electoral file, the organization of the election by a partisan Minister of the Interior or the supposed subservience of the territorial administration to the party in power.

Administrations come and go, oppositions come and go, but remains the same irresponsibility that places public officials and a reliable process under popular vindication. My conviction, which has been reiterated many times, is that since 1993, elections in Senegal have been free, democratic, transparent, and reliable. The political parties should henceforth strive to go beyond the electoral rule to debate the real issues related to the living conditions of our fellow citizens; those related to school, health, culture, security, the place of our country internationally and in history…

These questions seem to me more essential than the banter of the people of And Samm Jikko Yi and their cousins of Jamra, who falsely convey the existence of a LGBTQ agenda in Senegal.

The sustained presence of these lobbies in political campaigns confirms the loss of the cultural battle by the Senegalese progressive current. We have given in to the actions of a bunch of demagogues with a reactionary and dangerous agenda. Instead of discussing political programs, the debate revolves around a retrograde platform imposed by individuals who have no elected mandate. They have succeeded in subjugating the entire political class -with the notable exception of two or three- to their sad passions through blackmail and verbal tyranny.

Being in politics is to propose a societal project; it is to define a plan for transforming the living conditions of the citizens, and to view the idea of Nation through a long term lens. It is not to submit to the wills of a tiny group which exploits the moral panic and the sense of insecurity within the population to unfold its agenda through lies and manipulation.

These shadow politicians have blackmailed all the legislative lists to force them to adhere to their platform. In their document, they demand the restoration of the death penalty, the establishment of moral criteria, according to them, to access nominative and elective functions, the establishment of a chamber of worship to judge the compliance of laws in a Republic, the reduction of holidays which are workers’ entitlements, the review of media content, taking … Iran and China as an example, and they also demand the change of the Senegalese educational program.

To criticize them in any way is to be subjected to their lies and slander. It is to be called by these false devotees a homosexual, a Freemason or a servant of the West; an old refrain of the followers of manipulation and totalitarianism.

How can parliamentarians, former ministers and mayors give the slightest credit to these people to the point of signing their memorandum? Especially when said memorandum is nothing more than a mediocre anti-republican manual of submission to the « morals » of a tiny minority?

By Hamidou ANNE / hamidou.anne@lequotidien.sn