Chairperson of the Regional Centre for Governance and Security Policy Initiative (RCGSP), Jonathan Sandy, has described the presidential poll in Senegalese won by Bassirou Faye as another success story in the West Africa sub-region after the conduct of similar poll in Liberia.
Sandy, a member of a consortium of civil society organisations leading the implementation of the newly launched Regional Citizens Dialogue Programme on preventing and responding to UCG in West Africa, in statement on Monday, noted that they were lessons to be learnt from the Senegal's poll.
"The people and state institutions have successfully uphold our shared values and principles as enshrined in the ECOWAS supplemtary 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 , religion or regional basis."
"Hence, a key lesson here is the manner in which the Senegalese state and democratic institutions have conducted themselves- the Constutional court, the national electoral commission ( CENI) and the security sector institutions. They have worked very hard to preserve the integrity of Senegal's electoral process, leading to a free, fair , transparent and accountable elections .
"The role of civil society organizations and the media , at both the national and regional level were also exemplary- functioned on a non- partisan basis.
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"Another Lesson: incumbent political leaders in the ECOWAS region need to learnt from the power of Senegalese citizens and independent state institutions is that there is increased level of awareness that democratic governance is the pathway to the prosperity of all ECOWAS citizens.
"Efforts to manipulate national constitutions review processes for prolongation of Presidential Term Limits , tampering with electoral laws , and capturing state institutions through identity politics- regional and tribal electoral competitions , can only lead to Unconstitutional Changes of Government ( UCGs) -particularly military coup.
"Strong and independent institutions make electoral democracy work for all citizens.
"Bravo to the people and leaders of state institutions with the responsibility to preserve the integrity of national electoral 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 stated.
