The main players in these shifting alliances outside the APR will be Idrissa Seck whose party Rewmi left Sall's coalition last September and Alioune Baidara Cissé who left the APR in December after a row with Sall...
Earlier this year the flamboyant mayor of Thiès and leader of the Rewmi party Idrissa Seck stepped out of the BBY coalition amidst much fanfare (AC Vol 54 No 14 Presidential wobbles)...
The other key players in the Benno Bokk Yaakaar alliance the electoral alliance that swept Sall into power and swept the board at the parliamentary elections such as fellow liberal Idrissa Seck Parti Socialiste leader Ousmane Tanor Dieng and parliamentary Speaker and icon of the traditional left Moustapha Niasse were always career rivals...
The opposition to Sall and his Alliance pour la république (APR) includes the Parti socialiste (PS) and the Alliance des forces du progrés (AFP) and the President's most formidable adversary Rewmi led by the mercurial Idrissa Seck a tough political operator...
Ambition versus unity BBY united veteran politicians against Wade: Ousmane Tanor Dieng (Parti socialiste) Moustapha Niasse (Alliance des forces du progrès AFP and National Assembly President) Idrissa Seck (Prime Minister under Wade and head of the Rewmi [Nation] party) Abdoulaye Bathily (Ligue démocratique) Amath Dansokho (Parti de l'indépendance et du travail) and others...
Although rioting had been under way for weeks and candidates Idrissa Seck and Sheikh Bamba Dieye had hoped to provoke enough disruption to postpone the vote polling day itself was peaceful enough...
They turned down seven last-minute appeals including one from the President himself who claimed that three of his long-time foes former Prime Ministers Macky Sall and Idrissa Seck and former Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio had defaulted on tax payments thus violating one of the conditions required for candidates...
The divisive Idrissa Seck builds his support around the contention that Wade’s mandate is unconstitutional...
However he made no such offer to the younger candidates Macky Sall and Idrissa Seck...
Having rid the government of Sall the Wades wanted to remove those loyal to Sall too as they had done with Idrissa Seck a former Wade loyalist who stood against him in the 2007 election and won 15% of the vote...
These days since President Abdoulaye Wade fell out with former Prime Minister Idrissa Seck under whom Diop served Diop is closer to the opposition...