Senegal: The Broad Coalition Formed By The Opposition Is Already Imploding

PDS supporters did not want Khalifa Sall as a leader, so they created a new coalition with former President Abdoulaye Wade as head of the list for the legislative elections.

In view of the July 30 parliamentary elections in Senegal, the various political alliances have until midnight Tuesday, May 30th to deposit their lists. To oppose the coalition of President Macky Sall and protest against the incarceration in March of Khalifa Sall, the mayor of Dakar, suspected of embezzlement of public funds, the opposition announced the creation of a very broad coalition. But a few hours after the closure of the lists, this alliance announced as the only bulwark to the head of state, is literally imploding.

Decidedly the Wade family, who holds his party the PDS with an iron hand, can not imagine an alliance without directing it. And, failing agreement with Khalifa Sall, Idrissa Seck, and Malick Gackou, she decided to form a new coalition at the last minute. "  A winning coalition," the party said in an email to the press late Monday night.

A coalition with Abdoulaye Wade, who celebrated his 91 years Monday, tops the list. The former president has been maneuvering since the beginning of the year to organize the offensive against Macky Sall. But if all the leaders gathered around him agreed to demand the release of Khalifa Sall, the idea of campaigning with the mayor of Dakar at the top of the list was not imaginable within the PDS. Divisions already observed at the last gatherings where each side of this opposition saw its foal president in 2019.

Divisions pointed at by the ruling coalition. Unless last minute thunder, it is, therefore, a weakened and now divided opposition that embarks on the campaign for the legislative elections.