Elections: Again, Lessons From Senegal

We tried in vain to look for men who are sworn to win at all costs, desperate men who are unaware they have become sub-humans and mere pretenders to leadership through opportunism, despite wearing the best babaringa and suits”.

BY OGHOGHO ARTHUR OBAYUWANA

Alongside Cabo Verde, Senegal is regarded as the bastion of democracy in West Africa in that the country has since independence, never had its governance system disrupted by a military coup. The Senegalese people have a high sense of civic responsibility and also possess a matured elite/populace consensus on governance.

It was only in March this year that, that country had its presidential election which produced the young and forward-looking Bassirou Diomaye Faye as its president. Yesterday, the country had its parliamentary elections. And we were again there to have a look and to see that democratic consolidation is on course in the former French colony of brave men.

And again, just as we observed in March, the people stood tall. This is therefore an endorsement of sorts, of the earlier lessons advanced then. More than having strong institutions, good governance is upheld by politically matured citizens. The TRUST quotient in Senegal is very, very high. Trust for systems. Trust among the people for the conduct of exercises like elections. Most countries on the continent need to take a study in this.

In this clime, a people have matured enough to help themselves with democratic ethos even without sophisticated systems of votes count. For no matter the laws, electoral regulations and preachments, technology (like BVAS), when a people are still crawling as giants, they will always find a way to subvert the processes!

Here, processes are not flawed. Voters simply identified themselves as provided for by the electoral law, picked five ballot papers out of the lot (belonging to 41 political parties), went to the boot to discard papers of unchosen candidates/fold the preferred ballot in the brown envelop provided and bring same forward to be dropped in the ballot box and with fingers inked to prevent double voting.

Here, security personnel are sworn to guiding and protecting. They cannot be accused of being used by one political party or another. They stick to their brief professionally. There are no do or die desperate measures by anyone or group throughout the phases of the voting processes.

Closing procedures were observed. Before counting began, everyone was sent off leaving only security and party representatives with windows and doors also shut to prevent distractions. The filled result sheet was thereafter displayed by the door entrance. Yet no suspicious fingers were pointed. People believed in a childlike manner that what’s what is what would be gotten!

Baring technical elements, eg excess ballot paper (including perishable electoral papers) printing, that may need further refinement to avoid wastage of resources, Senegal may go down well as one of a few countries where “volatile” exercises such as elections would be conducted and incidences reports would not be flying about. Is the U.S.A watching Africa?

One Human Interest scene attests to the political maturity reference being made here: Prior to the election, one major polling Centre- the Iba madiop de madius stadium in the Medina area of Dakar was being renovated but the information about this did not sufficiently percolate down to the electorate. Yet this did not force any issues as unaware voters were peacefully led to the designated new centres on election day! No one capitalised on that to manipulate votes and reap “victory”. No manhandling of any peaceful voter by security men. No heightened tension. No burning of cars. No clashes. No Threats. No mudslinging. Social media exacerbation were seen as comic rants only. No DISTRUST OF INTENSIONS…

We tried in vain to look for men who are sworn to win at all costs, desperate men who are unaware they have become sub-humans and mere pretenders to leadership through opportunism, despite wearing the best babaringa and suits. Here elections and politics cannot be an industry. So people carried on like proper human beings. These people seemed resolved to present a decent exercise to the rest of the world. BRAVO, SENEGAL!