Hi folks,
I thought the following timely for our debate about how to get rid of the Jammeh government.
Katim
Sidy Gaye, PANA Correspondent
DAKAR, Senegal (PANA) March 22, 2000 - The democratic transition which took place Sunday in Senegal after 25 years of multiparty politics was facilitated at least by eight factors which significantly contributed to the free expression of universal suffrage and transparency in the presidential election held on 27 February and the run-off on 19 March.
The major factor is the option clearly chosen by the Senegalese people and politicians in government as well as those in the opposition, to ensure that the ballot box must be the only means to attain political power.
According to observers, this consensus was facilitated by the goodwill of Abdou Diouf, the incumbent president. When he came to power in January 1981, Diouf legalised a large number of opposition parties, including radicals who were then strongly inclined to urban guerrilla warfare, insurrection, peasant or proletarian revolution.
During his 10 years as prime minister, the successor of President Leopold Sedar Senghor (1960-1980) took the measure to satisfy the thirst for thorough political reform in the country. The violent expression of this demand on the streets of Dakar from 1968 onwards, eventually took a toll on Senghor who then resigned. As the constitutional successor of Senghor, Diouf preferred to immediately opt for "full multipartyism," thus renouncing the limitation of the number of parties.
Under the scheme set in motion in 1974, as part of the return to multiparty politics, three parties emerged representing three schools of thought - Democratic Socialism of the ruling Senegalese Progress Union (UPS) which later became the Socialist Party (PS), the Liberalism of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) founded by Abdoulaye Wade, and the Marxism-Leninism of the African Independence Party (PAI). A fourth trend, Conservatism, the Senegalese Republican Movement (MRS) led by Boubacar Gueye was authorised later.
The second factor which fostered the long process of maturity for Senegalese democracy was the strong determination of an emerging civil society to "strengthen the institutions of the republic and make them credible," in partnership with the opposition.
In this context, the private media - newspapers and radio stations - boosted these aspirations by acting as catalyst. Fortunately for Senegal, since the turn of the 1980s, private media organisations are not run by politicians but mainly by professionals who had turned their backs on the official media.
The judiciary, representative institutions (national assembly and local government), the central government and the armed forces were gradually monitored and controlled by citizens who were increasingly becoming critical and demanding. However, it is especially in the "formulation, on a consensual basis, of concrete proposals to perfect the Senegalese electoral system" that decisive steps were taken, observers note.
This was the third major factor which led to the political revolution which took place in Senegal between 27 February and 19 March 2000.
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