By Francesca Hangeior
Seven million Senegalese are due to head to the polls on Sunday to vote in a wide open presidential election following weeks of chaos and uncertainty.
Whoever comes out on top will be tasked with steering the traditionally stable West African nation out of years of turmoil, and managing revenues from recently discovered oil and gas reserves.
The 18 men and one woman have until Friday to finish a raucous two-week campaigning period, which was dramatically shortened after a last-minute change to the election date.
The election race was also fired up by a rapidly-passed amnesty law that led last week to the release from prison of Bassirou Diomaye Faye and the charismatic Ousmane Sonko, figureheads of the anti-establishment opposition.
Although Faye is Sonko’s deputy, the former is on the ballot because the latter has been barred from standing.
They plan “to share resources fairly. What belongs to Senegal should be left to Senegal, that’s patriotism,” said 38-year-old teacher Gnima Mane in the southern city of Ziguinchor.
For the first time in Senegal, the incumbent will not feature on the ballot, with the candidate selected by outgoing President Macky Sall’s governing coalition up against 18 rivals.
In the central town of Diourbel, many people have faith in Sall’s candidate, Amadou Ba.
“We have new streetlights, roads and a grass stadium,” said high school student Ousseynou Diene during a rally for Ba.
But Sall’s last-minute decision in February to delay the presidential vote due later that month sparked unrest that left four people dead.
Sall, who had won praise abroad by renouncing a possible third term bid in 2023, said he called off the vote over fears the ballot would not go well.
After weeks of political crisis, the country’s top constitutional body stepped in and forced him to reset the date to March 24.
Ba and Faye, who has pitched himself as the “candidate for system change” and “left-wing pan-Africanism”, both claim they will be able to win in the first round.
Khalifa Sall, the former mayor of the capital Dakar, has also been mentioned as an outsider.