Given by some observers as a winner in the first round of presidential elections in February 2019, President Macky Sall gave a show of strength during his inauguration by the Benno Bok Yaakar * alliance on 1 December in Diamniadio, 30 km away. north of Dakar. More than 15,000 activists were present in the den of “Dakar Arena”, a brand new sports complex delivered just three months ago.
The inauguration held in the wake of the 26th Congress of Liberal International, saw Presidents Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire, Adama Barrow of Gambia, Mohamed Abdel Aziz of Mauritania and George Weah of Liberia. Also present are Guinean prime minister, Aristide Gomes, Guinean and Malian opponents, Cellou Dalein Diallo and Soumaila Cissé, delegations representing the Chinese Communist Party and its 89 million members as well as the AKP of President Erdogan of Turkey.
The foreign presence of the presidential nomination has been variously appreciated by the Senegalese press. This does not diminish its symbolic significance. Described by the commentators as an oath before the hour, this nomination marks, in many ways, a demonstration of regional leadership for candidate Macky Sall.
In his inaugural speech, the Senegalese president put forward his record, claiming to have created 500,000 jobs. Of the economic balance, it will certainly be questions during the presidential next February when, in the absence of some political leaders, disqualified by the Justice, a certain Ousmane Sonko, declared candidate, is about to assert itself in challenger. Enough to prevent Macky Sall to repeat the famous “1 KO turn” popularized by a certain Alpha Conde, a great absentee of Dakar?
The Benno Bok Yaakar alliance, in force since 2012, includes the presidential majority and, mainly, the APR of President Macky Sall, the AFP of the President of the National Assembly, Moustapha Niasse and the PS of Tanor Dieng, President of the High Council of Local Authorities.
