Senegal 1999

Yearbook 1999

Senegal. Visit Countryaah official website to get information about the capital city of Senegal. The election to the Senate in January was boycotted by most opposition parties, and the ruling Socialist du Sénégal (PS) party won all 45 seats. That same month, President Abdou Diouf and Father Augustine Diamacoune Senghor, leader of the separatist movement Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC), met for the first time. This was followed by several contacts between the separatists and the government. In May, the regime promised new investments and a mine clearance program in the southern province. The MFDC, for its part, decided at a conference in Gambia’s capital Banjul in June to start peace talks with the government. But the MFDC is fragmented, and from the faction that has been behind most of the attacks over the past two years, only a small crowd participated.

• Also see Abbreviationfinder.org to see the acronym of SEN which stands for Senegal and other definitions of this 3-letter abbreviation.

Economy

In the spring, Senegal withdrew its soldiers from Guinea-Bissau, where they were sent to the defense of President Vieira’s regime the year before. A parliamentary report in the neighboring country in April stated that several officers from Vieira’s inner circle had been involved in arms smuggling to the MFDC rebels. From the Senegalese regime there was no public reaction to this information.

The upcoming presidential election in February 2000 raised the political temperature in the country. Former Foreign Minister Moustapha Niasse claimed at the beginning of the year that the ruling PS was led by a small corrupt click and strongly criticized the appointment of General Abdoulaye Dieng, a leading supporter of President Diouf, as president of the Election Commission. Niasse was excluded because of this from PS. In May, 14 opposition parties merged and demanded Dieng’s departure and changes to the electoral system. One of the opposition protests in Dakar in June led to a violent clash between protesters and police.

Niasse formed a new party in July. He, along with another defeated top politician from PS and Abdoulaye Wade, leader of the largest opposition party, was considered one of Diouf’s main contenders for the presidential post. Diouf started an intense election campaign as early as autumn 1999.

Peace talks with the MFDC led to a ceasefire agreement concluded at the end of December. The parties also agreed to meet for regular consultations each month. As a gesture of reconciliation, President Diouf released forty imprisoned MFDC rebels on New Year’s Eve.

History. – In March 2007 the presidential elections were held, which saw the confirmation of Abdoulaye Wade in the first round with 55.8%, and in June the legislative elections which, boycotted by many of the opposition parties, marked the clear victory of the Sopi coalition, led by the Parti démocratique sénégalais (PDS), with the conquest of 131 seats out of 150.

Wade continued with his previous mandate, accentuating an authoritarian style of government. However, the administrative consultations of March 2009 highlighted the discontent of the electorate: the opposition parties obtained control of various cities (including the capital Dakar), traditional strongholds of Wade. In June 2011, a great mobilization of civil society, animated by the movement Y’en a marre! (We’re fed up!), Later renamed M23 after the decisive demonstration on 23 June, forced Wade to give up on a reform project according to which 25% of the votes would have been enough to be elected president in the first round and which seemed to want to favor the succession at the helm of the country of his son Karim. In January 2012, the Constitutional Council admitted the candidacy of Abdoulaye Wade – head of state since April 2000 – in the presidential elections scheduled for February, judging the two-term limit set by the 2001 Constitution to be non-retroactive. The decision triggered a wave of protests across the country that resulted in violent clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators. In this context, Macky Sall’s candidacy was strengthened and, supported by a vast and heterogeneous array of political forces, he managed to defeat Abdoulaye Wade in the second round (March) with 65.8% of the votes. The legislative consultations, held in June, gave the victory (119 seats out of 150) to the Benno Bokk Yakaar coalition (United in Hope), led by Sall’s party, Alliance pour la république (APR). Sall, who had been prime minister from 2004 to 2007, nominated by Wade himself, but with whom he had come into conflict in 2008, he interpreted the needs of a predominantly young electorate and disappointed by the unfulfilled promises of an over 80-year-old president. Introducing himself as ‘the candidate of the people’, Sall centered his propaganda on issues felt as lowering the prices of basic necessities, work, social policies and the fight against corruption. However, the divisions weighed on the government’s ability to proceed with its program and, in September 2013, Sall formed a new executive, entrusting its leadership to Aminata Touré (replaced in July 2014 by Mohammed Dionne), who at the Justice Department had achieved good results in streamlining the times of trials and above all in the fight against corruption (Karim Wade was also arrested in April 2013). Still strongly anchored to the traditional values ​​of society remained the position of the government on some issues concerning civil rights, in particular that relating to homosexuality. On the complex situation of Casamance – the region that for years had been involved in an armed conflict, promoted by independentist forces – in the meantime, a window seemed to open with the start of a new negotiation, which saw the mediation of the community of Sant’Egidio. In foreign policy, Sall was in continuity with the previous administration, consolidating relations both with the United States, peacekeeping.