One day, he was in prison and unknown. The next, he was declared president of a nation.
The story of the newly elected president of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, seems like an episode from a fairy tale.
Ten days to the historic elections in Senegal on March 14, Bassirou Diomaye Faye was still a prisoner in a prison on the outskirts of Dakar.
He was a substitute candidate for Ousmane Sonko, after the disqualification of Sonko, the popular leader of the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF) Party, following a conviction for defamation which led to his imprisonment.
The surprising emergence of the 44-year-old tax inspector and rural farmer as president-elect makes him the youngest president ever elected in Senegal. He is now one of the seven youngest presidents in Africa.
About 7.3 million people were registered to vote in the country of over 18 million people. It was estimated that about 71% of the registered voters turned out, Aljazeera reported.
Faye emerged as the president of Senegal after three years of prolonged violence and turbulent attacks to discourage and delay the election.
Senegal, once identified as a fully free country by the Freedom House, now identifies as a partially free country as its scores on its people’s political rights and civil liberties have seen a slow decline in the last three years.
The manifesto presented by Mr Faye suggests that he will be transparent and accessible and allow for more participation of civil societies and other non-partisan actors in his government.
“I pledge to govern with humility and transparency and to fight corruption at all levels. I pledge to devote myself fully to rebuilding our institutions.”
These strong words, if acted on, could improve the freedom score of the country and revert the country’s freedom status to “free” once again.
Freedom to Choose Faye
Senegal has been described as one of the African countries with a stable democracy and a history of young presidents. The Freedom House rated it a ‘Free’ country between 2013 and 2019.
Research has shown that countries ranked fully free tend to have younger people as their presidents.
Senegal used to be one until 2019.
The country dropped from the status of Free to Partly Free in 2020, according to the Freedom House Report.
The country’s freedom score dropped from 75 out of 100 in 2013 to 68 out of 100 by 2023. Their Political Rights score now stands at 29 out of 40, while their Civil Liberties score is 39 out of 60.
The Freedom ranking measures the citizens’ level of freedom in exercising their rights in their country.