For Mamadou Seck, a specialist in organisational governance and elections, Senegal has every interest in protecting its back during this electoral event because the danger is not far away.

On 23 January 2022, the Senegalese will be called to the polls to elect their municipal and departmental councillors. These elections have already crystallized passions in the political field. The opposition and the presidential movement are staring at each other.

A delicate context in this country bordering Mali where jihadism is spreading terror. If Senegal is preserved from this cancer that is metastasising on its doorstep, it is mainly thanks to the professionalism of its defence and security forces.

But the enemies of peace can use the political violence as an opportunity to unfold their agenda. "We must (therefore) de-dramatise the elections so that the defence and security forces can continue to exercise their mission of security in the face of security issues and challenges," pleaded Mamadou Seck in Dakar on Thursday.

For this expert, "the elections remain very serious moments where the attention of the public is diverted. And therefore, any form of attack can come from outside because we are too focused on the elections, on securing mobilizations.

Mr. Seck was speaking at a roundtable organized by the Think-tank Wathi and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Senegal on the theme: "Senegal: The stakes of local elections of January 23, 2022".

Against a new postponement of these local elections, the author of the book "Political scandals under the presidency of Abdoulaye Wade" said that they present two types of issues. The first is structural, since this election should allow the deepening of Senegalese democracy.

"We are no longer in elections to end the crisis or consolidate democracy. We are in essential elections of deepening. In this scheme, we do not make gifts to actors because we have tested the model and the system. We are in levels of performance," explained Mamadou Seck, not without affirming that national and international public opinion will not give gifts to stakeholders because "we have reached a certain level of performance.
According to the political analyst, the second issue, which is cyclical, concerns the participation of women, which is still very low given the number of candidates. Indeed, there are only about a hundred women candidates out of 557 registered in Senegal.

To improve their representation in the political sphere, Mamadou Seck said he was in favour of promoting women party leaders because this should allow them to have more influence in the choices.

A battle that is far from being won, according to Oumy Cantome Sarr, a human rights activist and member of civil society who deplores "the refusal of women to take centre stage".
RT
Photo credit: APA

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