The Senegalese will go to the polls on 24 March to elect the head of state who will succeed President Macky Sall. The emotional lift will have been terrible, taking us through every state since the initial date of the ballot. It was on 3 February last, following the repeal of decree n°2023-2283 convening the electorate for the presidential election on 25 February 2024, we entered an institutional whirlwind that seduced the falsely attentive eye of an international opinion. The political and legal drama has been worthy of an episode of House of Cards, with endless twists and turns between the head of the Executive, the Senegalese Parliament and the Constitutional Council, not to mention the vicious game of civil society, most of whom would do better to take political party membership cards.

Read the column – A Wave of Despair and Merchants of Death

The crazy day of 6 March, with the plenary session of the law granting amnesty for the serious events that took place between 2021 and 2024 in our country, with their attendant deaths and damage, which will end with the adoption of this scurrilous law and the dissolution of the government, will have made many people dizzy. The country will have decided to erase from the collective memory a violent part of recent history that has fractured the social balance, divided families and brought the economy to its knees. In a call for forgiveness and reconciliation, nothing of all the insurrectionary acts, terrorist actions, police blunders and operations to undermine territorial integrity will be revealed to the ordinary Senegalese.

Criminals, torturers and thugs of various kinds will strut about without a care, with the possibility of re-offending when the opportunity arises. A « judge killer », who has now become a client of our media, recently proclaimed with a touch of cynical pride on a television programme that he was « dangerous » in the eyes of our security services because he knew how to make bombs. This great country’s dizzying leap into the abyss knows no bounds! Some may say that, after all, nothing is impossible in a country that has seen 11 amnesty laws in less than seventy years of independence.

Read the column – One Thousand Reasons to Say No to Amnesty

The silver lining in all this gloom is the decision to hold the presidential election on 24 March 2024. This decision by the President of the Republic, of which the Constitutional Council has taken note, will enable us to get out of a downward spiral that has weakened our country and could have been fatal. The people have been called to the polls, and there is no excuse not to accept. We must go to the polls and each citizen, with a clear conscience, must use his or her ballot paper to determine the path that he or she wants the country to take. A quick glance at the list of candidates, still confirmed by the Constitutional Council, gives a sordid idea of the embarrassment of choice when it comes to experiments in chaos and disorder. We can only hope that other cases of dual nationality are brought to light before polling day. The idea of plunging into a new nightmare, with a President who has pledged allegiance to another flag, is enough to ensure that the necessary efforts and investigations are made and the ambiguities removed. Our political scene has been much marked by fire hydrant squabbles and rag-tag fights during the two 2022 electoral contests for the Presidential election to be a time for insolence, disorder, outrageousness and greasy words.

The fast-track electoral campaign kicks off this Sunday at midnight. It will take place during Lent and Ramadan, in the hope that the prevailing religiosity of this period will inspire civility, elegance and mutual respect between candidates.

In a country where there are so many new champions of democracy, it would be nice if, for once, a debate between candidates could be held. I would have liked to see the heiress Anta Babacar Ngom face Bassirou Diomaye Faye on the same stage to discuss entrepreneurship, land management, illegal emigration and industrialisation, after the Ndingler episode in which they were direct protagonists. It would also be interesting to see a trainer and senior government official like Amadou Ba talking to his former agents and/or students, including Mame Boye Diao and Bassirou Diomaye Faye. The debates could be rich in lessons for former ministerial colleagues in governments appointed by Macky Sall. Mahammed Boun Dionne, Aly Ngouille Ndiaye and Thierno Alassane Sall would make perfect clients for such a debate. The beauty of 19 candidates is that the formulas and combinations for landmark debates are infinite. An opposition between candidates from the former Pastef party and the Jotna coalition, four in number, against neo-opposants could also make for an explosive debate. At a time when the efforts of our warriors for noble causes to « save Senegalese democracy » can no longer be counted, this is an opportunity for debate and exchange.
By Serigne Saliou DIAGNE / saliou.diagne@lequotidien.sn