But the 23 January local polls show they now face serious opposition after years of political hegemony aided by court cases that removed two major challengers – Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade – from the field of play (AC Vol 59 No 18 Not lacking convictions)...
The government suffered a crushing defeat in Dakar outpolled two-to-one by the opposition Yewwi Askan Wi with Khalifa Sall protégé Barthélemy Dias becoming mayor of the capital – while the President's brother Aliou was ousted from the mayoralty of Guédiawaye...
These will show whether his Alliance pour la République (APR) and its partners are on course to retain a comfortable majority in June's parliamentary election – or whether the new opposition alliance led by Ousmane Sonko and Khalifa Sall can seriously hope for a breakthrough...
The next step in dakarois disillusion came when Macky exercised his presidential prerogative to send prosecutors the findings of a probe into the political misuse of municipal funds by Khalifa Sall mayor of the capital and a potential challenger in the 2019 presidential race...
Seeing these contests as the first step towards 2024 Sonko and Khalifa Sall have united their supporters in a new alliance Yewwi Askan Wi (meaning 'liberate the people')...
Yewwi's official candidate is Barthélemy Dias a key aide to Khalifa Sall and currently local mayor of the capital's Mermoz-Sacré district...
For many Senegalese the claims were reminiscent of the legal cases that had removed other prominent opponents Karim Wade and Khalifa Sall from the electoral scene (AC Vol 59 No 17 President plays by his rules & Vol 59 No 18 Not lacking convictions)...
But the crisis has not gone away – even if the courts treat Sonko's case with scrupulous fairness and thus demonstrate greater independence from political influence than they did when handing Khalifa Sall a five-year jail sentence for a secondary misdemeanour that shut him out of the 2019 presidential race (AC Vol 58 No 9 Macky challenger gaoled)...
His determination to keep the party in the governing Benno Bokk Yakaar coalition and back the President in this year's presidential election provoked a rift with Khalifa Sall (no relation) the jailed former mayor of Dakar who saw himself as the man to carry the PS banner (AC Vol 59 No 18 Not lacking convictions)...
All this is making a PS approach to Khalifa Sall appealing...
After visiting Khalifa Sall Dakar's popular former mayor who is serving a sentence for misuse of municipal funds in Rebeuss jail and promising that as president he would order his immediate release Seck secured Khalifa's support (AC Vol 59 No 18 Not lacking convictions)...
He has the advantage of incumbency in a much-reduced field of candidates following the publication of the Constitutional Council's 3 January decision to accept just five: the incumbent; former president Abdoulaye Wade's son Karim Wade; the rising opposition firebrand Ousmane Sonko; Dakar's jailed former mayor Khalifa Sall; and the virtually unknown Issa Sall who leads the University of the Sahel (AC Vol 58 No 16 Who loves ya BBY...
Meanwhile the President's main rival Khalifa Sall is sitting out a jail sentence on corruption charges which many believe were brought only to keep him out of the race for the presidency...
Another tough opponent would have been the former presidential ally and former mayor of Dakar Khalifa Sall whose political style and record in office won him huge popularity...
Having lost his first appeal against conviction for the misuse of municipal funds Khalifa Sall has been dismissed as mayor of Dakar by President Macky Sall – even though the ultimate decision on his guilt has yet to be taken by the Court of Cassation (AC Vol 59 No 17 President plays by his rules)...
The verdict is now awaited in the appeal of the Mayor of Dakar Khalifa Sall against his conviction in March for misappropriating CFA1...
A new report from Amnesty International calls Khalifa Sall's original trial and conviction unfair and also criticises the conduct of the earlier corruption trial of Karim Wade...
However that is in sharp contrast to Khalifa Sall who remains hugely popular among Dakar voters and it is his case that leaves Macky most exposed to accusations of using the judicial system for political ends...
The trial of the mayor of Dakar Khalifa Sall is tearing Senegal's oldest political party apart...
Khalifa Sall has been in prison for nine months on charges of embezzling nearly US$3 million in anti-poverty funds that his supporters say are trumped up...
The dissidents had met in Kaolack on 16 December calling for the dissolution of the PS secretariat which they also accusing of conspiring with BBY in bringing the case against Khalifa Sall...
Khalifa Sall's supporters say the PS must rediscover its shine reclaim its socialist identity and field its own candidate...
There are agendas: Khalifa Sall's presidential ambitions are no secret and Dieng knows that PS sinecures would vanish the minute the party left BBY...
Khalifa Sall has been drifting away from the party even winning a seat in the National Assembly for another formation Manko Taxawu Sénégal...