Accidents involving Air Senegal, Corendon Airlines come as aircraft manufacturer in crisis over its poor safety record.
Two Boeing 737 passenger planes have been involved in accidents in Senegal and Turkey on takeoff and landing, raising further questions about the aircraft manufacturer’s safety record.
In Senegal, a chartered Air Senegal Boeing B737-300 plane skidded off a runway before takeoff early on Thursday at Blaise Diagne International Airport in the capital, Dakar.
Eight-five people – including two pilots and four cabin crew – were on board the flight operated by TransAir and bound for the Malian capital Bamako. At least 10 people were injured, the transport ministry said.
Photos showed the damaged plane at a standstill in a grassy field with a damaged wing, its emergency exit slides deployed.
Videos shared on social media appeared to show a left wing on fire. The aircraft was later cordoned off with red and white tape, the Reuters news agency reported.
The facility was closed after the accident but had reopened by 11:00 GMT, the airport operator said.
In Turkey, 190 people – including six crew members – were safely evacuated from a Boeing 737-800 belonging to Corendon Airlines after one of the aircraft’s tyres burst on Thursday during landing at Gazipasa, an airport near the Mediterranean coastal town of Alanya.
Corendon Airlines denied Turkish media reports that the aircraft, which had arrived from Cologne, Germany, had landed on its nose. Turkey’s Ministry for Transport and Infrastructure reported damage to the plane’s nose landing gear.
Flights were diverted to nearby Antalya airport while the aircraft was removed, the ministry said.
It was the second incident at a Turkish airport in as many days. On Wednesday, a Boeing 767 cargo aircraft belonging to FedEx made an emergency landing at Istanbul Airport after its front landing gear failed. No one was injured and the crew safely evacuated the aircraft.
Manufacturers are not typically involved in the operation or maintenance of jets once they enter service, but Boeing has been under intense media and regulatory scrutiny following a series of incidents involving its 737s.
In January, a door panel blew out of a Boeing 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight. The midair blowout followed two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
Further denting the company’s image, air safety officials in the United States are currently investigating whether employees at Boeing falsified inspection records for the 787 Dreamliner.
Senegal’s youngest president appoints ally and popular opposition figure Ousmane Sonko as prime minister.
Senegal’s new president has appointed firebrand politician and key backer Ousmane Sonko as prime minister in his first act as the West African nation’s leader.
Bassirou Diomaye Faye made the announcement shortly after he was sworn into office on Tuesday, pledging systemic change after years of deadly turmoil under his predecessor, Macky Sall, a political opponent of Sonko.
Speaking after his appointment, Sonko said he would present Faye with a full list of proposed ministerial appointments for his approval.
“There will be no question of leaving him (Faye) alone to assume this heavy responsibility”, Sonko said.
Faye took the presidential oath in front of hundreds of officials and several African heads of state at an exhibition centre in the new town of Diamniadio, near the capital, Dakar.
Faye, 44, has never previously held elected office. He swept to a first-round victory on a promise of radical reform just 10 days after being released from prison.
Lena Sene, an economist based in Dakar, told Al Jazeera that Faye faces a “very difficult” challenge as president.
“You cannot change an entire administration in one day. He understands that he has to put systems in place in order to fight corruption. He is ready for that,” she said.
Sonko, 49, was at the centre of a two-year standoff with the state that triggered bouts of deadly unrest.
Popular among Senegal’s youth, he was disqualified from running in the March 24 presidential race due to a defamation conviction, and picked Faye as his replacement on the presidential ballot. He denied any wrongdoing.
Campaigning jointly under the slogan “Diomaye is Sonko,” Sonko urged supporters to vote for his top lieutenant, Faye, who ultimately won with more than 54 percent of the vote in the first round.
Economic challenges
Faye, a former tax inspector, is Senegal’s fifth president since independence from France in 1960.
Acknowledging the country’s desire for “systemic change”, he pledged to strengthen the country’s democracy and establish an independent judiciary.
Working with his populist mentor, Faye now faces the challenge of carrying out national reconciliation, while easing the cost-of-living crisis, fighting corruption and appearing as someone not subservient to Sonko.
He has also promised to restore national sovereignty over key assets such as the oil, gas and fishing sectors.
The new government also needs to create enough jobs in a nation where 75 percent of the 18 million population is aged under 35, and the unemployment rate is officially 20 percent.
Campaigning jointly under the slogan ‘Diomaye is Sonko,’ Sonko urged supporters to vote for his top lieutenant, Faye, who ultimately won with more than 54 percent of the vote in the first round [Luc Gnago/Reuters]
Dakar, Senegal – “Finally, we can breathe,” the cashier at the American Food Store supermarket in Dakar said while swiping a pot of Greek yoghurt through checkout.
It was three days after Senegal’s contested March 24 presidential election – the day provisional results were announced – and there was a sense that something had turned: a new vigour for democracy brought about by the election of opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
The 44-year-old was sworn in on Tuesday after years of political turmoil and fears that outgoing President Macky Sall – who had already been in power for 12 years – would try to extend his mandate into a third term.
For months, the nation was on tenterhooks.
But after a whirlwind election cycle and last week’s landslide win for the young, anti-establishment candidate who was in prison just 20 days ago, there is now a palpable feeling among Senegalese that change has come.
‘Vote against the system’
On election day, voters began arriving at dawn, hours before polling stations opened.
Inside the playground of Nafissatou Niang Elemtary School in Dakar that served as one of the polling stations, voters in flamboyant boubou robes, old suited men with newspapers in hand and young men in fake Balenciaga T-shirts, lined up, all standing in silence.
A drone view of people lining up to vote at the polling station at Ndiaganiao in Mbour, Senegal [File: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters]
Among them was 37-year-old Julia Sagna, who said she was determined to use her vote to fight back.
Dressed in a grey power suit, she stood poised and a little nervous because she had never voted before. She said she never wanted to until she felt it really mattered. This time, she was sure: “The new, young voters would vote against the system,” she said.
Coming out of the polling station with a smile, she waved a pinky finger dipped in ink to mark that she had voted. “I feel lucky” to have participated, she said.
The delayed vote was supposed to have taken place in February. But days before campaigning was set to begin, Sall postponed the election for the first time in Senegal’s history, accusing the constitutional judges tasked with drawing up the list of candidates of corruption. Critics saw it as a last-ditch effort by Sall to cling to power.
But the Constitutional Council overruled the decision, ordering Sall to organise elections before the end of his mandate on April 2.
So on March 24, 66 percent of the seven million Senegalese eligible to vote went to the polls – a high turnout for a high-stakes election.
Arrested, then released
At the Medina polling station in downtown Dakar, large crowds gathered at the ballot boxes, some out of a desire for justice, others out for revenge.
Sall’s 12 years in office had been overshadowed by the political turmoil of the final few. In 2020, COVID-19 restrictions badly affected the informal economy and people’s livelihoods. The following year, the attempted arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko ignited widespread anger towards the government, which was accused of ignoring the struggles of common people in favour of clamping down on political opponents.
Riots broke out, and the clashes turned deadly.
Scores of people were killed and hundreds injured by armed, masked men. The opposition and civil society saw them as goons hired by the ruling party, acting with impunity and paid to hurt people.
The attempted arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko in 2021 ignited protests against the government [File: Aliou Mbaye/EPA-EFE]
From March 2021 to February this year, thousands of people were arrested – among them Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
The former tax inspector had taken to Facebook to protest, writing a post in February 2023 that accused magistrates of being in the pocket of the state while overlooking actual crimes. The authorities deemed the post threatening to state security and, therefore, illegal.
That April, Faye was arrested and sent to prison, where he stayed for 11 months before being released just before last month’s vote.
At the time of his arrest, Faye had been working for Sonko, also a tax inspector. They were figureheads of the union of employees of the tax office upset with injustice and disparities at the tax department.
In 2014, Sonko, a firebrand with a soft tone and a sharp tongue, created the political party PASTEF (African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity). The party attracted middle management civil servants who felt frustrated and powerless as they watched their superiors steal money and receive kickbacks with impunity.
Sonko came to fame by denouncing corruption in contracts for the lucrative oil and gas sector after natural gas reserves were discovered in 2014. In 2023, he was arrested on multiple charges, including provoking insurrection, conspiring with “terrorist groups”, endangering state security and immoral behaviour towards individuals younger than 21.
Shortly after, the government banned his party.
Ousmane Sonko was arrested and jailed in 2023 [File: Seyllou/AFP]
In 2018, Al Jazeera met Sonko in a small rented house overlooking a busy highway. During the interview, he lashed out at the government’s then-new law to control social media.
Little did he know then that the law passed in 2018 would be used five years later to arrest his deputy and the future president of Senegal, Faye.
On March 6, 18 days before the election, Sall passed an amnesty bill approved by parliament to release and pardon all those involved in crimes during the political violence that took place from 2021 to 2024.
Rights groups criticised the amnesty law, seeing it as a guise to protect the security forces and hired men involved in police brutality and the killing of protesters – crimes that will now no longer be investigated and, therefore, go unpunished.
But the amnesty also ensured the release of Sonko and Faye, who were freed less than two weeks before the election, bringing their presidential campaign to life.
The ruling party candidate, Amadou Ba, may have had the help of dozens of PR companies, but for many Senegalese, his messaging appeared tone deaf to the aspirations of the young majority, who desired change instead of more of the same.
Ba frustrated the media by arriving late to his own meetings or not showing up at all. Despite being the ruling party candidate, Sall also never appeared by his side.
Supporters of Faye attend a final campaign rally in Mbour, Senegal, before the presidential election [File: Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP]
‘Diomaye is Sonko’
Meanwhile, Faye and Sonko put on a show. They crisscrossed the nation, surrounded by bodyguards holding back frenzied crowds of young people wanting to get a glimpse of the men – as if the two were rock stars and not former tax inspectors.
The crowds sang the anthem to their campaign: “Sonko is Diomaye, and Diomaye is Sonko.”
Largely unknown to the public, Faye was until then riding the wave of Sonko’s popularity. But Faye stepped into the limelight.
Broom in hand, he promised “sweeping” change from a new currency and the renegotiating of oil and gas contracts to changing Senegal’s relationship with France and the French language. Under Sall, critics viewed Senegal’s government as a puppet to Western interests and one that put France’s interests above Senegal’s.
Faye promised he would put “Senegal first” and make the Senegalese his priority.
Overwhelmingly funded by the Senegalese diaspora from Europe and North America, Faye and Sonko ran an American-style campaign, campaigning as a duo “Diomaye Sonko” on a pan-African ticket. They filled up stadiums and lit up the sky with fireworks.
The show paid off. Two hours after the polling closed, a landslide victory appeared certain. One after the other, candidates conceded defeat and congratulated Faye.
By Friday, the official final results were confirmed. He had won 54 percent of the votes.
‘Sweeping’ victory
From political prisoner to president in fewer than 20 days, Faye is now Africa’s youngest leader at 44.
For his supporters, Faye was not the only winner. In the wake of the vote, people rushed to Sonko’s home. Under a flyover leading to Sonko’s house, where police had manhandled people trying to get to work in June, a victorious crowd gathered.
With horns blaring, young men on the rooftops of SUVs waved the green, red and yellow flag of Senegal. Some approached the area with their families and children. Supporters with brooms in hand swept the streets, a symbol of what they viewed as a sweeping victory.
But once the dust settles, people will want to know who is actually holding the broomstick.
When Sonko was barred from running in the election because of his criminal convictions, he chose Faye to stand as a candidate in his place. “A rational choice made not from the heart,” Sonko said in November at the time of his decision when Faye was also in jail.
Humble beginnings
Released on March 14 under Sall’s amnesty law, Faye will now settle into his presidential role. But his beginnings are far different from the elite he is replacing.
An hour-and-a-half drive from the capital is a long dirt road leading to Ndiaganiao, the village where Faye was born and raised.
It was here in 2022 that Senegal’s new president campaigned to become the village mayor but lost.
“Overcoming adversity and failure made him a success,” his father, Samba Faye, told Al Jazeera a day after the initial results were announced.
Samba Faye, father of presidential Bassirou Diomaye Faye, at his family home in Ndiaganiao [File: John Wessels/AFP]
The elder Faye lives in a modest cement home in a sandy settlement. Blue plastic chairs were stacked in one corner, others strewn across the courtyard. Pots emptied of food lay around after the previous night’s victory celebration.
Not far from the home is a mosque, and nearby in the sand, the final resting place of Faye’s grandfather.
The family is recognised among the villagers, and the newly elected president is a respected figure.
Faye’s grandfather fought as part of the colonial French army against Nazi Germany in World War II. But after that, he brought the fight home and took on French colonial administrators over the construction of a district high school, a battle that proved more difficult than the trenches of war because the French colonists saw educated Africans as a threat to their rule.
His persistence landed him in jail, but the school was eventually built.
This is where the future president went to school, his father said. And during his time off, the young man would help his mother and sister plant cereal grains.
Samba Faye has been a lifelong member of Senegal’s Socialist Party. His son grew up with left-leaning ideals, his father said.
“It’s easy to be proud of your son now when he gets so much recognition, but there was a lot of pain, a lot of hard work, to get where he is,” Samba Faye said.
Senegal’s new president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, left, shakes hands with the outgoing president, Macky Sall [Senegal’s Presidency/Handout via Reuters]
As Bassirou Diomaye Faye takes office at the presidential palace, in his shadow is his mentor Sonko. Tight friends, for now at least, but what role will Sonko play? Especially since Faye would likely have never won without him.
Some see uncertainty ahead. Others see hope for a new beginning. But what is clear is that there will be change.
Before the handover of power, Sall met his successor. Sall, in a suit and tie, shook the hand of president-elect Faye and opposition leader Sonko, both dressed in traditional attire.
To some it may just be a symbol, but to the Senegalese who voted for Faye, it is a cataclysmic shift.
Dakar, Senegal – For the traditional, small-scale fishermen of Ouakam Beach in Senegal’s capital Dakar, inequality is just a glance away.
Adama Gueye, a 58-year-old canoe captain, points towards the coast, where imposing villas of the upper-class, including politicians, sit tall and mighty a stone’s throw away from where he fishes.
“We can see the inequalities with our own eyes,” the fisherman told Al Jazeera.
For him, the injustice is compounded by decreasing fish stocks in the West African nation, where the centuries-old tradition of artisanal fishing is menaced by foreign industrial boats that export the fish away from Senegal.
But hope is on the horizon and it lies in his country’s new president: Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
Newly elected this week after years of tribulations and political crises – including a recent failed attempt by outgoing leader Macky Sall to delay the vote – Faye is Africa’s youngest leader at 44.
For many disenfranchised Senegalese fishermen who feel they have been wronged by their former leaders, he is also a symbol of change.
“[Faye] knows how much a kilogram of rice costs,” said Gueye, “he’s young, he was born in poverty, he didn’t go to private schools abroad – he’s one of us.”
Traditional fishing canoes, called pirogues, are parked at the Ouakam beach [Andrei Popoviciu/Al Jazeera]
For the past years under President Sall, legal fishing by industrial foreign trawlers from China and Europe who had signed contracts with the government, decimated Senegal’s fish stocks, leaving artisanal fishers with empty nets.
This scarcity also led local fish prices to soar, according to fishermen – something that could significantly affect people’s nutritional intake, as Senegalese get about 40 percent of their animal protein from seafood, according to 2017 figures.
In 2018, the value of Senegal’s legal fish exports reached more than $490m, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, accounting for 10 percent of the country’s exports, behind only phosphates, oil and gold.
Senegal also loses $272m per year because of unauthorised and illegal industrial fishing by foreign boats, according to the Institute for Security Studies.
Foreign boats are restricted from fishing in certain areas and have strict indicators as to what type of catch they are allowed to fish. But often, they turn off their satellite transponders to avoid being tracked and use illegal nets.
The fishing industry contributes nearly 1.8 percent to Senegal’s GDP, providing more than 600,000 jobs, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation – a number that could be higher due to lack of registration.
Without fish, many livelihoods that depend directly and indirectly on fishing are lost, and a sizeable number of fishermen choose to immigrate to other countries or use their sailing skills and take dangerous boat journeys to Spain’s Canary Islands. In 2023, the UN refugee agency had registered more than 15,000 arrivals to Spain.
But now, the president-elect wants to change the fate of fishermen.
‘An agreement to steal our resources’
When Faye announced his electoral programme at the start of the month, he mentioned shifting the fishing zone exclusive for artisanal fishermen by 20km (12.4 miles) to protect it from foreign boats.
He also announced his intent to develop and implement a National Plan for the Immersion and Management of Artificial Reefs, an attempt to reconstruct marine habitats and ecosystems degraded by years of damaging industrial and artisanal fishing practices.
“We will apply without concession and in all its rigour the regulations on sea fishing to put an end to the political and complacent management of the sector,” local media quoted him as saying.
In advance of the vote, Faye also signed a charter for sustainable fishing, alongside other candidates. Proposed by Senegal’s National Coalition for Sustainable Fishing and supported by Greenpeace during this month’s election campaign, the charter included a commitment to oversee stock management at the sub-regional level, conduct audits on a fishing agreement with the European Union, and allocate a portion of revenue generated from oil and gas exploitation to the fishing sector.
Fishing is a central part of the Senegalese economy, providing more than half a million jobs, much more according to some [Andrei Popoviciu/Al Jazeera]
Under Sall’s government, Senegal renewed a fishing agreement with the EU that had been present in one form or another since 1979 and has been renewed every five years. The deal gives European vessels access to fish in Senegalese waters and exports that catch back home in exchange for 800,000 euros ($863,104). The EU also provides Senegal with an additional 900,000 euros ($970,992) in investments in artisanal fishing and to improve stocktaking capabilities, enhancing research and data gathering in the fisheries sector and issuing health certifications for seafood products.
But the deal has been controversial. While most fishing agreements have a transparency clause regarding how much fish is exported by European vessels, the EU-Senegal deal does not. While the EU invests in the artisanal fishing industry and fishing governance, fishermen like Gueye have argued that if there are no fish to catch, there is no point to these investments.
Chinese and Turkish industrial boats have also been heavily criticised for their practices. For instance, it has not been uncommon for the government to give licences to boats with a history of illegal activities. Chinese and Spanish fishmeal companies based in Senegal, which turn the catch into fish feed to then be used to raise farm fish in China, have garnered criticism in recent years. In 2022, fishermen sued a Spanish fishmeal factory, accusing it of polluting drinking water.
As president, Sall focused on developing the country through investments and deals with foreign countries. He was harshly criticised by the opposition – led by Faye and his ally Ousmane Sonko – for deals that were not in the interest of the Senegalese but of companies and politicians who extract resources for exports with little trickling down to other citizens.
Faye believed it was one of the biggest grievances Senegalese had with the former government, so he ran on a campaign to revamp Senegal’s natural resource export deals with foreign countries and lend an ear to artisanal fishermen, who felt they had not been consulted before these contracts were signed by the previous government.
“The EU signed an agreement with Senegal to steal our resources, that’s why people are going to Europe,” said Gueye, referring to the thousands of local fishermen migrating to Europe on small boats.
“I hope Diomaye will put them in their place,” he said, adding that the new president also needs to crack down on illegal fishing, illegal nets and regulate how both industrial and artisanal fishermen operate.
“We have hope he will work for us.”
Helping Senegalese fishermen
Fishermen could see the impact themselves. Moussa Gueye (not related to Adama), a 30-year-old fisherman at Ouakam Beach born in a family with a tradition for fishing, told Al Jazeera that during the COVID-19 pandemic, when restrictions limited the presence of industrial boats, fish were plentiful.
Moustapha Senghor, coordinator of the local artisanal fisheries council of Mbour, a city on the southern coast of Senegal, told Al Jazeera that Sall had made efforts to address issues with fishing but they were “insufficient”.
“There is a lack of transparency in fisheries governance in Senegal,” said Senghor, who stressed the need for open data resources that show the vessels operating in Senegalese waters, where they can fish and where they can not, and how much fish is there.
He concurs with the other fishermen’s call for a revision of fishing agreements.
Fishing also converges with migration in Senegal. “Most of the fishermen are looking to the Canary Islands to reach Europe because they’re worried about the continuation of their fishing activities, especially in view of the cohabitation with oil exploitation,” Senghor said.
Many fishermen have lost their livelihoods because of depleted fish stocks [Andrei Popoviciu/Al Jazeera]
In 2014, significant natural gas reserves were discovered offshore near the Senegalese city of St Louis. International players like British Petroleum (BP), which has the highest stake in the project, and US-based Kosmos Energy have invested in the project together with the Senegalese government. After the project was announced, European statesmen made official visits to court former President Sall for potential export deals.
The extraction of gas was expected to bring $1.5bn in exports by 2025 if it were to start when it was scheduled at the beginning of the year, but there have been several production delays. Offshore oil exploitation for exports is also expected to start production in the following years.
Meanwhile, fishermen in St Louis have complained of the effect the oil and gas rig has on their activities, including the cut off of fishing near the rig and the impact on what is one of the world’s biggest cold water reefs.
Bassirou Diarra, a fisheries and aquaculture engineer and researcher at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar and campaigner at the Environmental Justice Foundation, told Al Jazeera there is a need to invest in scientific research as well.
A centre for oceanographic research would be able to monitor the stock of fish and report on how much can be fished sustainably, while also monitoring the pollution and impact of the rig on the biodiversity in the region. Diarra said Senegal’s current fishing agreements are remnants of his country’s colonial past.
“Macky Sall has implemented [fishing] policies that continued the system of exportation,” added Senghor. “[Faye] needs to help the Senegalese eat and produce their own fish and not export all of it abroad.”
Not just economic interests threaten the fishermen.
Back at Ouakam Beach, Gueye, the canoe captain, pointed out how the shore has been swallowed by the sea for the past 30 years, due to rising sea levels. He is hopeful Faye will also address this key issue and protect the fishermen from the effects of climate change.
As the beach is flooded by a bright sunset, Gueye makes his last caveat clear. Despite the faith he puts in the new president, recent political upheavals in the last years of Sall’s rule have made him more cynical.
“We’ve woken up as a society,” he said. “If [Faye] doesn’t do the job well, he won’t last more than one term.”
The 44-year-old will be inaugurated to replace Macky Sall, who ruled the West African nation for 12 years.
Senegal’s Constitutional Council has confirmed the presidential election victory of opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
The confirmation on Friday paves the way for his inauguration as the country’s fifth president, which is expected to take place on April 2.
The top court validated provisional results announced on Wednesday based on vote tallies from 100 percent of polling stations.
Faye – an anti-establishment candidate and ally of popular opposition figure Ousmane Sonko – won more than 54 percent of votes cast in last Sunday’s delayed presidential poll.
His closest competitor in the polls, ruling coalition candidate Amadou Ba who was handpicked by outgoing President Macky Sall, took about 35 percent of the vote.
The Council said no objections had been raised by the other contenders. At age 44, Faye becomes Africa’s youngest president.
The African Union hailed the “unanimous acceptance of the results”. African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said he “warmly congratulates” Faye on his victory and wished him “full success in his weighty and noble charge”.
French President Emmanuel Macron also offered Faye “warm congratulations” and said France wanted to “continue and intensify the partnership” between their countries, his office said.
Faye’s victory came just 10 days after he was freed from prison. He has said he wants a “break” with the current political system.
Analysts said his win reflected a protest against the outgoing leadership and divisions within a powerful, but weakened, governing coalition.
The polls followed three years of political turbulence that led to violent antigovernment protests, which garnered greater support for the opposition.
Going into the election, Faye was seen as a strong contender to replace Sall, after his ally Sonko was disqualified from the ballot because of a suspended jail sentence following a conviction for defamation. Sonko endorsed Faye to run in his place.
Although Faye was imprisoned last April and charged with contempt of court, defamation and acts likely to compromise public peace, after posting a message critical of the justice system, he was not convicted of any crime and was able to stand in the election.
“A man that was imprisoned for more than 11 months, over a Facebook post that authorities had deemed dangerous to the sovereignty and the security of the state, is now at the helm of one of the fastest growing economies in West Africa,” said Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from Dakar.
“Faye is the youngest elected head of state in Africa and is promising change to the people … of Senegal,” he added.
Commonly known as ‘Diomaye’, Faye ran under the slogan “Ousmane mooy Diomaye”, meaning “Ousmane is Diomaye” in Wolof – reinforcing the links between him and Sonko.
Both men studied law and worked as tax inspectors, where they met and spoke out against corruption, and later co-founded the now-dissolved PASTEF party in 2014.
They have branded themselves as incorruptible tax inspectors who did not fill their pockets while others did.
The full provisional results are expected to be confirmed by the Constitutional Council in the coming days.
Opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye won more than 54 percent of votes in Senegal’s presidential election, the Dakar appeals court has said.
The court said on Wednesday the provisional results were based on vote tallies from 100 percent of polling stations. The results are expected to be confirmed by the Constitutional Council in the coming days.
Faye’s victory came just 10 days after he was freed from prison. The 44-year-old victor has said he wants a “break” with the current political system, and is set to become the youngest president in Senegal’s history.
The court said ruling coalition candidate Amadou Ba took more than 35 percent of the vote, and third-placed candidate Aliou Mamadou Dia won 2.8 percent.
Senegal’s outgoing President Macky Sall earlier congratulated Faye, saying his win is “a victory for Senegalese democracy”.
Analysts said his win reflected a protest against the outgoing leadership and divisions within a powerful, but weakened, governing coalition.
Faye’s message has been particularly popular among young voters in a country where more than 60 percent of people are under 25 and struggle to find jobs.
Supporters of the leading opposition candidate have been celebrating in Senegal after Bassirou Diomaye Faye appeared to take an early lead in the presidential election, but the ruling party said the vote would go to a run-off.
Opposition supporters take to streets in celebration but ruling coalition says a run-off will be needed to determine the winner.
Supporters of Senegal’s presidential candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye have taken to the streets of the capital, Dakar, in celebration as early results from Sunday’s vote showed the opposition contender in the lead.
The celebrations came as at least five of the 19 candidates in the race issued statements congratulating Faye on what they called his victory.
But his main rival from the ruling coalition, former Prime Minister Amadou Ba, said the celebrations were premature.
“For our part, and considering the feedback of the results from our team of experts, we are certain that, in the worst case scenario, we will go to a run-off,” Ba’s campaign said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from Faye.
Millions in Senegal took place in Sunday’s vote to elect the country’s fifth president. It followed three years of unprecedented political turbulence that sparked violent antigovernment protests and buoyed support for the opposition.
At stake is the potential end of an administration led by outgoing President Macky Sall, who is stepping down after a second term marred by unrest over the prosecution of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and concerns that the president wanted to extend his mandate past the constitutional limit.
The incumbent was not on the ballot for the first time in Senegal’s history. His ruling coalition picked 62-year-old Ba as its candidate.
Sonko, in jail until recently, was disqualified from the race because of a defamation conviction. He is backing Faye, the co-creator of his now-dissolved PASTEF party, who was also detained almost a year ago on charges including defamation and contempt of court.
He and his colleague Diomaye have campaigned together under the banner “Diomaye is Sonko”.
About 7.3 million people were registered to vote in the country of approximately 18 million. Turnout was at about 71 percent, according to state television RTS.
Election day ran smoothly with no major incidents reported.
The first set of tallies announced on television showed Faye had won the majority of votes.
Jubilant crowds gathered in Sonko’s neighbourhood in Dakar, with supporters setting off fireworks, waving Senegalese flags and blowing vuvuzelas.
“This is really an unusual election,” said Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from outside Sonko’s home. “People are celebrating outside the home of a politician who is not even in the running – Ousmane Sonko. For the people here, the fact that this election even took place is a reason to celebrate. There has been so much pent-up emotion being released. On these streets just weeks ago, there were riots, demonstrators protesting for this election to take place.”
He added: “No one has claimed victory. The counting is still under way, but there are some notable candidates who have all congratulated Faye.”
They included one of the main contenders, Anta Babacar Ngom, who wished Faye success as leader of Senegal in a statement.
“Congratulations to Bassirou Diomaye Faye on his unquestionable victory,” she said on X.
It was not clear how many of the 15,633 polling stations have been counted so far.
Final provisional results are expected by Tuesday. A second round of voting will only take place if no candidate secures the more than 50 percent majority required to prevent a run-off.
Voting is under way in Senegal in a delayed presidential election that many hope will bring change after a turbulent political period that has triggered violent anti-government protests and boosted support for the opposition.
More than seven million of the country’s over 17 million people are registered to vote in the election, which has seen about 16,440 polling stations open on Sunday across the country and in the diaspora.
Nineteen contenders are vying to replace President Macky Sall, stepping down after a second term marred by unrest over the prosecution of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and concerns that Sall wanted to extend his mandate past the constitutional limit.
The incumbent is not on the ballot for the first time in Senegal’s history. His ruling coalition has picked former prime minister Amadou Ba, 62, as its candidate.
Sonko, Sall’s main opponent, was not able to take part after he was convicted of defamation. Bassirou Diomaye Faye replaced Sonko as the candidate for the PASTEF party.
Besides Ba and Faye, Dakar’s former Mayor Khalifa Sall, veteran politician Idrissa Seck, former Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, a close ally of President Sall Aly Ngouille Ndiaye and entrepreneur and political newcomer Anta Babacar Ngom — the sole woman among the candidates — are all a part of the presidential race.
(Al Jazeera)
To avoid a run-off election, one candidate must secure more than 50 percent of the vote. While official results are expected next week, in previous elections candidates have announced their predictions on the same evening as the vote.
Reporting from Dakar, Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque said it was an “unusual” election.
“There is both anticipation like you would have in any election; there is an element of fear and unknown because this is the first election in the last 12 years where President Macky Sall is not in the running … and there is an element of excitement, especially among those young, first-time voters.
“This is an election like no other and it’s very important, especially for young people.”
‘Voting for change’
Lines formed outside polling stations around Dakar on Sunday. Roads were quiet as the nation’s elite police force was deployed across the city in armoured vehicles, checking voters’ cards.
“I am so happy to be able to exercise my right to vote as a Senegalese citizen,” voter Thiaba Camara Sy, from the organisation Demain Senegal (Tomorrow Senegal), told Al Jazeera at a polling station in Dakar.
“This is something that we have won because the risk was high of the election being delayed until who knows when, so I’ve been queuing for two hours but I’m happy.”
In the ocean-facing neighbourhood of Dakar’s Ngor, fisherman Alioune Samba, 66, said he was voting for the change everyone wants.
“Food, water, school; everything is expensive with the low income we have in Senegal,” the father of three told Reuters news agency.
People wait to cast their votes outside a polling station during the presidential elections, in Dakar, Senegal [Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP]
Khodia Ndiayes, a 52-year-old cook, told the Associated Press news agency she picked Faye on the ballot because she wanted Sonko to win.
“I’m proud to have voted,” she said. “We need a new president because life is expensive, the economy is bad and we need better schools.”
Al Jazeera’s Haque said it appeared that a lot of people have come out to vote.
“It’s interesting who those people are: a lot of young men but also women, key in this election because women make up a substantial part of the electorate in Senegal,” he said.
Faye versus Ba
Faye, who was endorsed by the more popular Sonko to replace him, was detained almost a year ago on charges including defamation and contempt of court.
An amnesty law passed this month allowed his release days before the vote. He and his colleague Diomaye have campaigned together under the banner “Diomaye is Sonko”.
“The population is choosing between continuation and rupture,” Faye said after casting his vote, urging contenders to accept the result.
Meanwhile, Ba said that he was “very, very, very confident” of his chances of winning.
In these elections, “the two political camps stand on opposite sides of the political spectrum”, Mucahid Durmaz, a senior political risk analyst for West Africa at Verisk Maplecroft, told Al Jazeera.
He noted that while outgoing President Sall and his ruling coalition candidate Ba favour economic liberalisation policies, opposition figure Sonko and his chosen candidate Faye plan to introduce a new currency and renegotiate contracts with oil and gas operators in the country.
“The issue here is that despite the economic boom that the country has witnessed over the years under President Sall, it’s not really facilitated a wider socioeconomic development for the country’s youthful population,” Durmaz said.
Economic issues
Unemployment is another key issue in the election.
Frustration at the lack of job opportunities has spurred support for Sonko and his backed candidate Faye, particularly among the youth.
The share of young Senegalese not in employment, education or training stood at 35 percent in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic further squeezed the job market.
Besides unemployment, the rising cost of living spurred by Russia’s war in Ukraine and the appreciation of the United States dollar have undermined support for current ruling Senegalese authorities.
The launch of oil and gas production later in 2024 has also raised questions about whether the natural resource wealth will benefit the wider population and create jobs.
The Sonko-backed opposition coalition has promised to renegotiate energy contracts to maximise revenues, while Ba is running on the slogan “Prosperity Shared”.
‘Calm’ voting process
While the elections come amid frustrations over a fragile economy, according to election observers, the voting process has been relatively peaceful.
Hundreds of election observers from civil society, the African Union, the regional group the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the European Union were on the ground monitoring the fairness of the vote.
“From the opening this morning, our observers – and it’s a partial piece of the picture – we have seen that there are quite some queues in front of the offices, which shows that people are mobilised to go and use their right to vote and express their views for the future of Senegal,” Malin Bjork, from the EU election observer mission to Senegal, told Al Jazeera.
“Election offices are functioning well. It’s calm; there is serenity in the process, according to our observations,” she added.
“I think today is a very great day for us,” the Aar Sunu Election (Protect Our Election) group, led by Dr Abdoulaye Bousso, told Al Jazeera in Dakar.
When Sall announced the cancellation of the election in February, there was an uproar from civil society in the country, including Bousso’s group.
“We fought to have this election day happen and we are very proud to see the big mobilisation of the Senegalese people.
“For us, it’s the victory of the Senegalese democracy.”
This small fishing village on the Atlantic coast some 100km (62 miles) from Senegal’s capital, Dakar, is a site of pilgrimage for the country’s Christian minority.
For the past 135 years, pilgrims – including the pope – have travelled here to pray at a site where they say the Black Madonna appeared.
Some believe miracles happen in this village.
It is a place where the sick come to be cured.
Politicians also come here to get elected.
Their campaigns arrive with blaring mbalax music – the popular dance tunes of Senegal – free T-shirts, and sometimes handfuls of cash and a promise that if you “vote for us, your despair will turn to hope”.
“Politicians think they can make miracles,” one of my neighbours tells me with a hint of irony.
Senegalese voters are not duped though.
Voters gather in Popenguine-Ndayane in the days leading up to Senegal’s election [Nicolas Haque/Al Jazeera]
Macky Sall’s announcement
Voting is a tradition that precedes French colonial rule in Senegal: From the poet-President Leopold Sedar Senghor down to the current presidency of Macky Sall, there have only ever been peaceful transitions of power.
That is a source of pride for Senegal, which is surrounded by countries ruled by military governments. Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali – one after the other – the former French colonies in West Africa that became democracies are falling; a domino effect that has spared this small coastal nation of approximately 17 million.
Situated on the most westerly tip of Africa, Senegal remains standing as a bastion of democracy.
But then came that Saturday afternoon in early February when, just hours before the presidential election campaign was scheduled to kick off, journalists were told the president would address the nation.
Sensing trouble, colleagues called me. We were incredulous as we waited. We watched an old man play a traditional instrument until the president was ready to make his address.
Hours had passed. It seemed like a bad omen, or perhaps a distraction.
Then the national anthem played and President Sall appeared.
A colleague, her husband, and an entire nation – including the family dog – stood still in silence, ears alert and listening as the president made history for all the wrong reasons.
The president claimed that the process by which the list of election candidates was drawn up by the country’s constitutional council was flawed. Judges from the council, he continued, were suspected of taking bribes to eliminate candidates from running in the election, thus putting into doubt the outcome of the vote.
Some sighed in resignation. Others burst into fits of anger. Our family dog barked with rage.
Nicolas Haque in Popenguine-Ndayane [Courtesy of Nicolas Haque]
We had seen it coming, though.
Months before the polls, Sall – always a shrewd politician – had left his intention ambiguous as to whether he would run for a third mandate as president.
Julie Sagna watched Sall’s speech at home.
At the age of 32, she had never taken the time to vote. But when members of Senegal’s security forces stormed the National Assembly, throwing members of the opposition out, she knew that she was being robbed of a fundamental right that she had long taken for granted.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
“The president is orchestrating a constitutional coup to extend his time in power!”
Sagna took to TikTok to fight back. Others clashed with security forces.
After political manoeuvres and street protests, the Constitutional Council stepped in, announcing a new election date of March 24.
That shortened the campaigning period to two weeks, but scheduled the vote to be held before Sall’s mandate as president ended on April 2.
Campaigning
Meanwhile, Sall, seeing his reputation crumble on the international scene, signed an amnesty bill to free what human rights groups describe as political prisoners. Thousands were released, including opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and his deputy Bassirou Diomaye Faye – the election candidate representing the banned political party PASTEF.
But the campaign had started without him.
Getting a head start in canvassing voters was the governing party’s candidate and former prime minister, Amadou Ba.
Ba crisscrossed the nation with a throng of bodyguards and with the well-oiled machine of the state apparatus to support him. Several reputable PR firms from the West were also tasked with making him appear a man of the people, ready to deliver stability.
A former tax inspector who became prime minister, Ba is an experienced civil servant. But he has never been elected to office. During the 2022 parliamentary elections, he lost to the banned PASTEF party’s candidate in his home district of Parcelles Assainies. Yet, despite that defeat, he is the candidate of choice of President Sall.
Described by his critics as the “billionaire civil servant” – billions in local West African CFA franc currency, that is – the opposition accuse Ba of being another corrupt politician trying to make a buck by becoming president.
Ba’s former employee – and also a tax inspector – Bassirou Diomaye Faye is running against him after his recent release from prison.
During a weeklong campaign supported by opposition figure Ousmane Sonko, Faye has gone from unknown contender to political stardom. He was seen on top of a car, waving a traditional broom – symbolising his intent to sweep the country clean of corruption and also sweep to victory. As the anti-establishment candidate, Faye is calling for an overhaul of the political system.
For many young people, including Julie Sagna, Faye is a break with the past that young people feel they need to move the country forward.
Supporters cheer as Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko holds a joint news conference with the presidential candidate he is backing in the March 24 election, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a day after they were released from prison, in Dakar, Senegal on March 15, 2024 [Zohra Bensemra/Reuters]
Where elections are won
In Mbour – located not far from the pilgrimage village of Popenguine-Ndayane – Faye held his final campaign rally in front of a raucous crowd.
Among those who attended, many were young men. It is uncertain whether they will come out to vote in the election on Sunday. Many do not have voter registration cards.
Missing from Faye’s rallies was a key demographic: Senegalese women from the countryside.
Their vote can tip the outcome.
“It is away from the bustle of the capital or the blaring caravans of candidates, deep in the countryside beneath the village tree that elections are won in Senegal,” a traditional village healer tells me.
In Popenguine-Ndayane there is talk among the local women of a country they feel is no longer their own. A record number of mostly young Senegalese men travelled to Europe illegally in 2023. They went in search of work despite a booming economy at home. The mothers and sisters of Popenguine-Ndayane do not want to see their sons and brothers leave.
Like the Black Madonna that pilgrims come to venerate here, Senegal’s women can also make miracles happen at election time.
But, more than the free T-shirts and cash given to win their votes, what they want to see most of all is certainty in times of uncertainty.
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