Senegal : 19 candidates vie to succeed President Macky Sall

Over 7,300,000 Senegalese voters are choosing Sunday their fifth president in a delayed election initially set for 25 February 2024.

The voters spread across the country’s 14 regions and in the Diaspora have to elect one of the 19 candidates who have had 15 days of electoral campaign after Macky Sall gave up postponing the vote on an injunction from the constitutional court.

Sall president since 2012 is not seeking another term, leaving the field wide open for a successor.

Among the contenders vying to replace President Sall, the top figure include the ruling coalition’s candidate Amadou Ba and the leading opposition figures such as Diomaye Faye, Khalifa Ababacar Sall, Mamadou Aliou Dia, and Idrissa Seck.

At stake is the potential end of a regime that has pushed investor-friendly policies but failed to alleviate economic hardship in one of coup-prone West Africa’s more stable democracies just as it is poised to become an oil and gas producer.

Polls opened at 8.00AM and will close at 1800 GMT. Provisional results are expected by March 26. Voting bureaus will begin posting their tallies from Sunday night.