Kelvin Bowoto
Jonathan Sandy, Chairperson of the Regional Centre for Governance and Security Policy Initiative (RCGSPI), praised Bassirou Faye’s victory in the Senegalese presidential election as another success story in the West African subregion, following the holding of a comparable election in Liberia.
Sandy, a member of a coalition of civil society organizations leading the implementation of the newly created Regional Citizens Dialogue Programme on preventing and responding to UCG in West Africa, said in a statement on Monday that there were lessons to be learned from Senegal’s poll.
“The people and state institutions have successfully upheld our shared values and principles as enshrined in the ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance (2001), particularly principles related to ‘The State and all its institutions belong to all citizens; therefore, none of their decisions and actions shall involve any form of discrimination, be it on an ethnic, racial, religious, or regional basis.”
“As a result, a crucial lesson here is the conduct of Senegalese state and democratic institutions, including the Constitutional Court, the National Electoral Commission (INEC), and security sector organizations. They have worked extremely hard to ensure the integrity of Senegal’s electoral process, resulting in free, fair, transparent, and accountable elections.
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“The role of civil society organizations and the media at both the national and regional levels was also exemplary, as they operated on a nonpartisan basis.”
“Another lesson that incumbent political leaders in the ECOWAS region should take from the strength of Senegalese citizens and independent state institutions is that there is a growing recognition that democratic governance is the path to prosperity for all ECOWAS citizens.
“Efforts to manipulate national constitution review processes in order to extend presidential term limits, tamper with electoral laws, and capture state institutions through identity politics—regional and tribal electoral competitions—can only result in unconstitutional changes of government (UCGs), particularly military coups.
“Electoral democracy works for all citizens because it has strong and independent institutions.
“Congratulations to the people and leaders of state institutions who are responsible for ensuring the integrity of the national election process!
“The people and state institutions of the Republic of Senegal have made us proud citizens of ECOWAS by safeguarding our shared vision of sustaining electoral democracy based on the rule of law!” Sandy told the audience.
Techrectory with Agency Report.
