![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() On December 10, 2021, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA)-which has ruled Angola for 46 years-confirmed that the incumbent president, João Lourenço, will again be the party’s candidate in the August 2022 presidential elections. In contrast to Senegal, Angola has long been viewed as an autocratic, one-party state. Angola’s presidential elections: Test for an ambivalent reformer Consequently, the outcome of the municipal elections will likely have a significant impact on how Senegalese view the fairness of their country’s electoral processes, including the forthcoming legislative contest scheduled later in 2022. In addition, the requirement that mayoral candidates pay CFA 15,000,000 (around $25,000) to be eligible competitors has fueled ongoing debates about the monetization of Senegalese politics. Third and relatedly, the independence of the National Autonomous Electoral Commission (CENA), which oversees all municipal elections, has been under question since all of the CENA’s members are appointed by the president. Due to disenchantment among young Dakarois with the incumbent regime’s corruption and inability to generate employment, Dias is likely to triumph in a fair contest. The BBY’s Dakar mayoral candidate is Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, who is also the current minister of health, while his main competitor is Barthélémy Dias of the Yewwi Askan Wi. The city is fiercely contested because it houses a quarter of the country’s population, produces 55 percent of national GDP, and generates 80 percent of the country’s employment opportunities. Second, the upcoming elections will determine who leads Dakar, the country’s capital city, which has remained an opposition stronghold since 2009. ![]() Approximately 20 opposition parties have now coalesced under the Yewwi Askan Wi (“Liberate the People” in Wolof) coalition, led by Sonko, to vie for municipal control. Large-scale street protests in both March and November 2021 against the arrests of opposition leaders were extremely violent, leading to the deaths of at least 10 people and prompting fears concerning the degree of conflict that might surround the January polls. Over the last several years, such prosecutions have targeted former government minister Karim Wade, former Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall, and parliamentarian Ousmane Sonko. This downgrade is partially due to changes to electoral laws that Sall’s government implemented in 2018 to limit eligibility criteria in the 2019 presidential elections, concerns that he will violate the constitution and run for a third term, and his repeated interference in the judiciary to ensure prosecutions of popular opposition leaders. In fact, Freedom House recently identified Senegal as backsliding from a “fully free” to a “partly free” regime. First, they are a referendum on Sall’s presidency, which has tainted the country’s democratic credentials in recent years. The upcoming local elections are important for several reasons. However, municipal elections originally scheduled for June 2019 have been postponed four times. Current mayors, almost all of whom belong to the Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) party coalition of President Macky Sall, have been in office since 2014 and legally should have served only five-year terms. On January 23, 2022, Senegalese will vote for mayors across the country’s 550 municipalities. Senegal’s local elections: The battle for Dakar The outcome of these elections will significantly impact prospects for reversing democratic erosion, the extent to which civil society and countervailing institutions can keep leaders accountable, and the future range of tactics that incumbents employ to retain power. All three countries face important local and national elections. In 2022, developments in three key countries-Angola, Kenya, and Senegal-will provide an important bellwether for where the continent is heading. ![]()
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