The big winner of the 2017 legislative elections in Senegal is the party of Unity and Rally (PUR). This new party has foiled all the polls of the press organs that were totally unaware of it during the campaign. But PUR was able to impose itself where many opposition parties struggled to federate voters and gain votes during this election.
The final results are not yet published. But we can say without mistake that thanks to a mobilization, simple communication and a clear message, this party performing through its actions on the ground and with the populations convinced a new wave of voters.
The party created in 1998 is headed by its national coordinator, Professor El Hadji Issa Sall (Rector of the Sahel University).
However, Serigne Moustapha Sy was the party’s president since the first congress held in 2000. During the 2000 presidential elections, he was the candidate in the elections which allowed the election of President Abdoulaye Wade with whom he shared Many democratic combats between 1988 and 2000. On the eve of the elections of 2000, he withdrew his candidacy on the request of Serigne Cheikh Tidiane Sy Al Maktoum a few days of the votes.
Two months to three months before these legislative elections of 2017, the activities of the party were resumed, following its restructuring to deposit its list of candidates for these legislative elections. “However, the participation of PUR in these elections was not foreseen at the beginning of the year,” says a well-informed source of the party.
This structural reorganization of the party, in Senegal and in its diaspora, allowed it to make a score that no coalition-free party could have done in Senegalese political history under these conditions.
For the parliamentary elections, according to the latest trends in partial results, the PUR would largely occupy the fourth position after the three large coalitions of classical political parties originating from PDS or PS mainly: Benno Bokk Yaakaar, Manko taxawou Sénégaal and winning coalition Wattu Sénégaal.
