Macky Sall, President Elect of Senegal.

There have been  a change in the reigns of power in Senegal, and a new man has been put in charge by the people who have spoken loudly. Here is a profile of the new president of Senegal.

Macky Sall (born December 11, 1961 is a Senegalese politician. He is the president-elect of Senegal and will be inaugurated to the position on 1 April 2012. He was the Prime Minister of Senegal from April 2004 to June 2007 and was President of the National Assembly of Senegal from June 2007 to November 2008. He was the Mayor of Fatick from 2002 to 2008 and has held that post again since April 2009.

Sall was a long-time member of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS). After coming into conflict with President Abdoulaye Wade, he was removed from his post as President of the National Assembly in November 2008; he consequently founded his own party and joined the opposition. He emerged as the President of Senegal on 25 March 2012 after defeating the incumbent in a run-off election.

Sall, a geological engineer by profession, was born in Fatick. He became Secretary-General of the PDS Regional Convention in Fatick in 1998 and served as the PDS National Secretary in charge of Mines and Industry. He was Special Advisor for Energy and Mines to President Abdoulaye Wade from April 6, 2000 to May 12, 2001, as well as Director-General of the Petroleum Company of Senegal (Société des Pétroles du Sénégal, PETROSEN) from December 13, 2000 to July 5, 2001. He became Minister of Mines, Energy and Hydraulics on May 12, 2001, and he was promoted to the rank of Minister of State, while retaining his portfolio, on November 6, 2002. He additionally became the Mayor of Fatick on June 1, 2002.

On August 27, 2003, Sall was moved from his position as Minister of State for Mines, Energy and Hydraulics to that of Minister of State for the Interior and Local Communities, while also becoming Government Spokesman.  He was then appointed as Prime Minister by President Wade on April 21, 2004, when his predecessor, Idrissa Seck, was dismissed. On April 25, 2004, Seck became Vice-President of the PDS Steering Committee. Sall served as the director of Wade's re-election campaign for the February 2007 presidential election, in which Wade was victorious, obtaining a majority in the first round. After Wade was sworn in, Sall submitted his resignation on April 10 and was immediately reappointed, with the government unchanged.

In the June 2007 parliamentary election, Sall was elected to the National Assembly as a candidate on the national list of the Sopi Coalition. After the election, Wade appointed Minister Delegate for the Budget Cheikh Hadjibou Soumaré as Prime Minister on June 19, replacing Sall, who had resigned along with his government shortly beforehand. Sall said that he was proud of what he had accomplished as Prime Minister.

Sall was elected as President of the National Assembly one day later, on June 20, 2007; he was the only candidate and received 143 votes from the 146 deputies present. Sall and Wade came into conflict later in 2007 when Sall called Wade's son Karim, the President of the National Agency of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), for a hearing in the National Assembly regarding construction sites in Dakar for the OIC Summit planned to take place there in March 2008. This was perceived as an attempt by Sall to weaken Karim's position and possibly influence the eventual presidential succession in favor of himself, provoking the enmity of Wade and his loyalists within the PDS.^[11] In November 2007, the PDS Steering Committee abolished Sall's position of Deputy Secretary-General, which had been the second most powerful position in the party, and it decided to submit a bill to the National Assembly that would reduce the term of the President of the National Assembly from five years to one year. Following the death of Mourides religious leader Serigne Saliou Mbacké in late December 2007, his successor, Serigne Mouhamadou Lamine Bara Mbacké, asked Wade to forgive Sall; Wade then met with Sall and the two were said to have made peace in early January 2008.

Sall nevertheless remained at odds with the PDS leadership in 2008. In September 2008, a PDS deputy presented the bill to reduce the term of the President of the National Assembly to one year, and later in the month, Sall was called before the PDS Disciplinary Committee, although he did not appear. On this occasion, Sall was accused of divisive personal initiatives within the party; he also allegedly committed "acts aimed at undermining the image of the party and country", referring in particular to Sall's visits to the Senate of France and the United States Democratic Party's 2008 Convention. A statement released by Sall's political adviser condemned the move to discipline Sall as an "attempt at political liquidation".On October 13, 2008, the National Assembly voted to reduce the term of the President of the National Assembly to one year; this was approved by President Wade on October 21. Despite Sall's determined efforts to maintain his position, the National Assembly voted to dismiss him as President of the National Assembly on November 9, 2008. There were 111 votes in favor of his removal and 22 against it. Sall promptly announced that he was resigning from the PDS; this decision meant that he would lose his seat in the National Assembly, as well as his seat on Fatick's municipal council and his post as Mayor of Fatick. He also said that he would create a new party. Mamadou Seck was elected to replace Sall as President of the National Assembly on November 16, 2008.

Sall founded his own party, the Alliance for the Republic–Yaakaar, in early December 2008. The Interior Ministry accused Sall of money laundering on January 26, 2009; Sall denied this and said that the accusation was politically motivated. In late February 2009 it was decided not to prosecute Sall due to lack of evidence.

Following the March 2009 local election in Fatick, Sall was re-elected to his former post as Mayor in April 2009. He received 44 votes from the 45 municipal councillors present; the Sopi Coalition's five councillors were not present for the vote.

The initial result of the 26 February, 2012 election saw Sall obtaining 26.5% of the vote against Wade's 34.8%, forcing a runoff. On 25 March, the presidential run-off was held, and Wade phoned Sall at 21:30 GMT to concede the race with congratulations. Sall will be inaugurated as the 4th president of Senegal on 1 April.

Sall is in favor of reverting to the previous term limits and lengths of office. For the second round of the presidential election, Sall called on all other losing candidates and disqualified candidate Youssou N'Dour to support him on the promise of returning to five-year terms from the previous seven-year term that Wade controversially restored; he also said he would ensure that no leader could hold more than two terms.

African Money.

French ex-President Jacques Chirac, and presidential hopeful and former PM Dominique de Villepin were given $20m by African leaders, partly to finance election campaigns, a lawyer alleges.

Robert Bourgi said he was personally involved in handing Mr Chirac briefcases full of cash, but said there was "no proof" of the payments.
Mr Bourgi made similar allegations against the far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, AFP reports.
The ex-leaders vowed to sue Mr Bourgi.
Mr Chirac and Mr de Villepin deny the claims, which come seven months before presidential polls. Mr Le Pen said the allegations against him were "false... ridiculous".
Mr de Villepin is seen as a major centre-right rival to President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Mr Chirac is currently on trial in absentia on charges of illegal party funding. A medical report says he is too unwell to attend and suffers memory lapses.
'Clean France'

In an interview for the Journal de Dimanche newspaper on Sunday, Mr Bourgi alleged that he had been involved in handing over several suitcases to Mr Chirac during his tenure as mayor of Paris in the 1980s and 1990s.

He claimed that the suitcases always contained at least 5m francs ($1m; £630,000) and sometimes as much as 15m.

The first handover of money in Mr de Villepin's presence occurred in 1995, he said, involving 10m francs from the then Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko.
Mr Bourgi alleged that money from the leaders of several former African colonies was then passed to Mr Chirac and Mr de Villepin over the next 10 years. Speaking on Europe 1 radio, he estimated the total amount to be about $20m.
But he added there was "no proof, no trace" of the alleged secret payments.
In an interview with French television on Monday, he also alleged that the former head of the far-right National Front party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, funded part of his 1988 presidential campaign with money from Gabon's late ex-president Omar Bongo, AFP reports.
Mr Le Pen told BFM television: "If this Mr Bourgi was charged with giving me these funds, he must have kept them for himself."
Mr Bourgi claimed that Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaore, former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso and Bongo all visited Mr de Villepin in his office, handing over $10m for the 2002 election campaign.
Bernard Houdin, an adviser to former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, said that such payments were "a historical practice" and that "the sums mentioned are no doubt below reality".
However, Sengalese and Burkinabe officials denied the claims. Asked what African leaders got in exchange for the money, Mr Bourgi said: "Lies, lies, lies, unkept promises, meaning that France would close its eyes to certain abuses of power in Africa."
"I acted in my own name, no-one dictated me this interview," Mr Bourgi said, adding that he wanted a "clean France". He added the claim that the same system of secret payments existed under former presidents Georges Pompidou, Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Francois Mitterand.
Mr Chirac's lawyer, Jean Veil, said on Sunday that he had been instructed to file a defamation complaint against Mr Bourgi, and Mr de Villepin told French TV he would do the same.
"They are trying to stop me from running [for president], they have been putting spokes in the wheels for years, but I have thick skin," he said. Judges are expected to rule this week on the so-called Clearstream affair, in which Mr de Villepin is charged with plotting to discredit Mr Sarkozy by failing to stop a corruption inquiry in 2004. The former prime minister was cleared of all charges in a trial that ended last year, but the state prosecutor appealed against the verdict. Mr Bourgi is widely seen as being close to Mr Sarkozy, but he said he was not an unofficial or official adviser, although he was sometimes consulted by the president.Whilst we in Africa are seriuosly in need of basic necessities of life just as good drinking water, education, constant supply of electricity and many more, our leaders are sending African money to the west especially France to finance their electoral campaigns. If all these allegations by Mr. Bourgi turns out to be true, the African leaders mentioned in the story should be impeached by their people just to serve as an example to others who are thinking of doing same. This huge sum of African money could have been used to improve the living conditions of the people in the afore mentioned countries. I weep for Africa, oh  Mother Africa.