After weeks of protesting and rioting about current President Aboulaye Wade's decision to change the constitution and run for a 3rd term in office , the big day finally came on February 26th. There were 14 candidates, 12 men and surprisingly 2 women. The rioting resulted in 9 deaths and divided regional capitals all over Senegal. Much of the population wanted to see Wade step down, but there were still plenty (i.e. my regional capital) that continued to support the president. Even my very own family was divided, half supporting candidate Macky Sall and half supporting Wade.
During the last year of his presidency, old man Wade (seriously 85 yrs), tried to create the position of Vice Presidency. The scam was that he would name his son VP and then step down, making his son President. Senegal caught on and said absolutely not!
All over West Africa/North Africa there have been tumultuous political problems or coups in the last few decades. Libiya, Guinea, The Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Mali, etc....everyone was saying that Senegal was different, but to be honest we were all walking on egg shells, praying that Senegal would succeed in safe democratic elections.
Some of the Senegalese people that I've talked to did not vote on Feb. 26th because they were scared to go to the polls. Many people who I have asked who they were voting for said that it was between them and God. Everyone was trying to prevent violence in their communities.
I was in village for the actual election. (Peace Corps had banned all travel to regional capitals.) The actual process on a village level was quite interesting. The voting in my area took place at the local elementary school. Voters walked into a room, guarded by armed military personnel, gave their ID's and voters cards to a person that checked the validity, then another person recorded the voters information in a book. Next, the voter picked up 14 slips of paper, each with a name and picture of a candidate and an envelope. They went behind a black curtain, put the picture of the candidate they were voting for in the envelope and disposed of the rest. Lastly, they brought the envelope out and put it in a sealed plastic container. Voila! Not as exciting as I thought it would be, but interesting nonetheless.
The next day it was announced that Wade recieved 34.8% of the votes and Macky Sall recieved 26.5% of the votes. As neither of these was a large enough percentage to declare a winner a runoff between the two candidates was scheduled for yesterday, March 26th.
Yesterday was very calm. Besides the fact that there was no public transportation, in the bush you could have easily forgotten it was election day. Voters were quickly in and out of the polls, even less exciting than round 1. At around 10pm, I was at my neighbors listening to thewolof election broadcast at an obsenely high volume (if it's not loud you are not in Senegal) when the winner was announced. Of course I didn't know what they were saying, but half the compound was happy and the others just went about their buisness. Macky Sall was declared president of Senegal!
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/world/africa/president-concedes-race-in-senegal.html?_r=1
I am proud of Senegal, holding onto it's democratic ways in the midst of its politically troubled region. I did not want to see Wade overruling the constitution once more, and therefore reigning over my family and friends here for another 6 years. It was time for a change and I hope that Sall is the guy who will work for what Senegal really needs, grassroots support and development.
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