Senegal is in the geographical region of Africa that has seen a high rate of coups the past three years. Despite this, Senegal has maintained some stability and helped coordinate responses against coups elsewhere in the region.

Yet the current president of Senegal, Macky Sall, when interviewed by The Economist asks,

> "Is democracy as we want to do it really suitable?"

Senegal is on the way to hold presidential elections in February, and there has already been a damaging fight between the incumbent president and an opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko. The Economist writes,

> The fight centres around the question of whether Senegal’s government is trying to tilt the election by using the courts to keep Mr Sonko off the ballot.

This has involved accusations of rape (acquitted), corruption of youth (convicted), plotting an insurrection (still active). The opposition claims this is repeating a pattern from 2019 when the opposition was also barred from running due to criminal convictions. The incumbent president denies this.

> The charge and conviction sparked large protests, some of them violent, in support of Mr Sonko. The demonstrations were also fuelled by hints from Mr Sall that he might try to run for a third presidential term, even though Senegal’s constitution has a two-term limit. It was only in July that Mr Sall definitively said he would not seek office again, after more than two years of protests and at least 37 deaths, according to Amnesty International, a rights group.

> Mr Sall’s announcement led to a lull in the violence, though it lasted less than a month until Mr Sonko was once more arrested. The government also dissolved his political party, Pastef, and arrested many of its leaders, including several mayors. As protests flared, the government cut mobile-internet access for almost a week.

There seems to be insecurities around how peaceful Senegal's democracy really is:

> Many fear more violence before the election, especially if Mr Sonko is definitively barred from running. Even Mr Sall prevaricates when asked if he expects the election to be peaceful. [...] Mr Sall bristles at the suggestion there has been a backsliding of democracy on his watch. “Those who say that [there has been] are supporters of anarchy and chaos,” he retorts. “Senegal has no lessons in democracy to learn from anyone.”