Senegal

Senegal, often seen as a model of democracy in West Africa, has faced significant political crises in the lead-up to its 2024 presidential election, from concerns the incumbent will run for an unconstitutional third term, including the arrest and imprisonment of opposition candidates, deadly protests, the shrinking of political space for civil society groups and the media, and the unprecedented postponement of the presidential election itself. However, the Constitutional Council also made an unprecedented decision when it cancelled the president’s decree, postponing the election and informing the president that the elections must be held as soon as possible, especially before the President’s mandate was up in April. The President complied with the court’s decision and set the date for a month later than originally planned, March 24, 2024. This electoral period has shown the resilience of Senegal’s democracy and leadership in the region; however, it has also shown that Senegal is not immune to democratic backsliding. 

As part of the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS) implementing the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Elections Support Program in Senegal, IFES is working to build the capacity, inclusiveness, and independence of Senegal’s electoral institutions, namely the General Directorate for Elections (Direction Générale des Élections - DGE), under the Ministry of Interior. Under this program, IFES has worked to build the technical capacity of the DGE in several areas, including in electoral planning, logistics, communication and awareness campaigns, information technology, social media, training, and inclusion. IFES has also implemented its People Against Violence in Elections (PAVE) methodology in six universities throughout Senegal, training 250 university students in conflict prevention, mitigation and peaceful civic engagement. IFES also created an electoral lexicon in sign language, creating terms related to the political space for the first-time to sign language users in Senegal, a vital resource for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community when engaging in voter education and the political process. IFES has trained over 650 deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals on the lexicon, which has allowed some to vote independently for the first time. 

Before this program, IFES worked in Senegal during the 2012 electoral period. Under the Civic Education Program for Underrepresented Groups (CEPURG) program, IFES organized a nationwide civic education campaign led by civil society organizations and targeting women, youth, and persons with disabilities that reached over six million Senegalese citizens and relayed messages about electoral processes, voters’ rights and responsibilities, and non-violence and participation. IFES also used the Electoral Violence Education and Resolution (EVER) methodology to train over 60 electoral violence monitors who monitored electoral violence in six target regions. In addition, under the Programme Gouvernance et Paix (PGP) program, IFES provided technical assistance to the Autonomous National Electoral Commission (CENA) to better supervise and control electoral operations; raised citizen awareness of civic rights and duties; and increased the capacity of political parties, targeting women, and youth members.