DAKAR, Senegal: Candidates of the Senegal’s presidency Friday gathered crowds of supporters for their final rallies, marking the end of a rushed campaign for what is considered an unprecedented election after weeks of political turmoil.
Seven million eligible voters will go to polls Sunday (tomorrow) in the traditionally stable West African country set to become an oil producer. Nonetheless, more than a third population of the country lives in poverty and half the population are aged under 20.
As many as 17 contenders remain in the race for president after the last-minute withdrawal of two candidates, with campaigning officially ending at the midnight.
The new incumbent of the presidency will be tasked with steering the country out of years of tension and managing revenues from recently discovered gas and oil reserves.
President Macky Sall who is in power since 2012, is not contesting the election, making it the first Senegalese vote where the incumbent is not on the ballot.
Two former tax inspectors are regarded the favourites to win — ex-prime minister and the governing coalition’s candidate Amadou Ba, 62, and Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 43 who is seen as anti-establishment figure.
Faye was only released from jail last week, nearly a week into the election campaign, together with popular and charismatic firebrand Ousmane Sonko, who is barred from standing. He backs Faye in the vote.
Karim Wade, the son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, who has been disqualified for election Friday told his supporters to vote for Faye — giving the opposition candidate a significant last-minute endorsement.
Thousands of Faye’s supporters holding up his picture gathered at a stadium in the western town of Mbour in the early evening in his final rally.
The former mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall, 68, has been seen as a possible third place candidate in the first round.
A second-round vote is expected given the number of candidates and the need for an absolute majority, but no date has yet been set.
The nation was originally due to vote on Feb 25, but an 11th-hour postponement by President Sall triggered the worst political crisis in decades which left four dead.
