No one, apart from the person concerned, can say if Macky Sall will be a presidential candidate. If his Apr supporters have invested him on several occasions, his allies and potential challengers, who all oppose his candidacy, know nothing of his intentions. This silence confuses all the players who have ambitions for 2024.
Will Macky be a candidate for the 2024 Presidential? Everyone is asking this question, but the outgoing head of state prolongs the (false?) suspense, freezing the political small society in a situation of uncertainty. Faced with speculation and conjecture about his participation in the next presidential election, President Sall remains impervious to pressure and does not seem in a hurry to make up his mind. On Sunday March 19 in Ndiaffate, a town located in the department of Kaolack, Prime Minister Amadou Ba had asked President Macky Sall to declare his candidacy to allow them to quickly launch the electoral campaign for the majority in the Presidential election of 2024. Bby officials had met in this city, which recalls the glorious past of Jean Collin, for the holding of the mega-regional investiture meeting of President Macky Sall. He had obviously blessed this “investiture” meeting. The initiatives have multiplied, sometimes he presides over them. But he refuses to change course.
However, the first announcements, in the form of pressure or clever orchestration, began last November. In an exclusive interview with Le Quotidien on November 11, the Director of Structures of the Apr, who was to proceed on the 12 to the launch of the sale of membership cards, solemnly declared: “Our presidential candidate for 2024 is President Macky Sall.” For Mbaye Ndiaye, the time had come to make public the official candidacy within the Alliance for the Republic (Apr). « There is no plan B, plan C or plan X », continued the Minister of State for the Presidency. After this exit, there were attempts at denial in the ranks, but the initiatives did not prosper. Despite his political longevity, Mbaye Ndiaye does not know how to use the wooden tongue and his word did not come out ex-nihilo.
Today, all the bodies of the Apr have invested Macky Sall. He remains silent… It has even become confusing for everyone. For his supporters. His allies. And even his possible challengers. Even Jamm gën troisième mandat (Peace is better than the third term) is struggling to find the right angle of fire, fearing that the country will be confronted with organized, determined, lasting social movements, which would put people in the streets massive crowds to push him to retreat.
Can we still make the President, who had said several times that he was on his last term, falter in defeat to a decision taken by his camp? Not so long ago, the answer was self-evident. To his activists, he would seem like the perfect captain to steer the boat through the storm. They refer to the threats to institutions, democracy, the rise of populism… A sort of safety or security cordon to « preserve Senegal » from the chaos represented by « the extremist camp ».
This is an unprecedented situation: in 2011, President Abdoulaye Wade had already edified everyone. Even if his candidacy was rejected by the public, his formalization had allowed the actors to draw their roadmap. Some had opted to stay at the Place de l’Indépendance and the Place de l’Obélisqueto campaign against the announced candidacy of the outgoing. Bad outcome…
