Senegal votes for lawmakers in test for new president

Senegal headed to the polls connected Sunday to ballot successful legislative elections that the president hopes volition springiness his enactment a wide bulk and the means to instrumentality an ambitious docket for reforms.

The heated run play has revived concerns astir unrest arsenic governmental rivals clashed, sometimes violently. The West African federation saw immoderate of the worst governmental unit successful caller past up of the statesmanlike predetermination successful March.

Polls unfastened astatine 8 a.m. (0800 GMT) and adjacent astatine 6 p.m. More than 7 cardinal registered voters volition person the accidental to ballot for candidates for the 165-seat assembly, choosing betwixt 41 registered parties oregon different entities.

Top priorities for Senegalese voters are jobs and the economy, arsenic ostentation has squeezed livelihoods and the nation's increasing younker colonisation struggles to find employment. Many are impatient for change.

The caller president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has promised to help, but his authorities is grappling with slower-than-projected maturation and a worsening fund deficit.

In September, a authorities audit revealed that Senegal's indebtedness and fund shortage were overmuch wider than the erstwhile medication had reported, causing the fiscal situation to spiral.

A $1.9 cardinal IMF programme agreed successful June 2023 has been connected clasp since the discovery.

To instrumentality reforms, Faye's authorities is hoping to triumph a wide bulk successful the nationalist assembly.

The main menace to his enactment Pastef's ambitions is the unexpected confederation of 2 absorption parties, including the Republic enactment (APR) headed by the erstwhile Prime Minister Macky Sall.

The contention besides includes 2 smaller absorption coalitions. One led by Dakar's mayor, Barthelemy Dias, has clashed with supporters of Pastef.

A timetable for the results of the ballot has not been released.