Socialist Party of Senegal

The Socialist Party of Senegal was first created in 1958 right before Senegal gained independence.[4] The Party was founded by Leopold Sedar Senghor and it was in power under him politically from 1960 to 1980.[5] The Socialist Party of Senegal was initially known as the Senegalese Progressive Union (Union Progressiste Senegalaise, UPS).[4] Senghor had founded the Senegalese Democratic Bloc in 1948 and in 1958 it merged with another political party to become the UPS.[6] The UPS became the ruling party of Senegal in 1960 once independence was gained. The UPS officially was known as the Socialist Party of Senegal starting in 1976.[6]

When Senegal gained independence in 1960, Senghor was unanimously elected president to Senegal's new republic system.[6] He was elected president on September 5, 1960.[7] He had served in the French Constituent Assembly since 1945, therefore he already had political experience when elected president.[7] In the early 1960s, there was a personal and political rivalry between President Senghor and Prime Minister Mamadoua Dia. In 1962, there was a coup attempt.[8] Dia accepted blame and was sent to prison as a result.[4] A new constitution took effect in 1963 and Senegal's parliamentary system became a centralized presidential system.[8] In 1963 Senghor ran unopposed for president and consequently won. By 1966, Senegal was considered a one-party state.[2] This occurred because Senghor was running unopposed as president and the economic stability of Senegal began to fade.[9] Senegal relied heavily on peanut-farming and this source of economic stability was in decline.[2] Single-party rule prevented an overwhelming economic crisis and ensured social stability in Senegal, which was appealing to people in the country.[4] However, in the 1990s, Senegal's status as a democracy was called into question because it seemed impossible to remove the Socialist Party of Senegal from office.[2]

There was no legal political opposition to the Socialist Party of Senegal until 1974, which is when Abdoulaye Wade obtained legal permission from Senghor to create a new party. He created the Senegalese Democratic Party.[10] Starting in 1978, Wade's party began to start winning seats in the National Assembly. This was the beginning of Senegal moving from an essentially single-party system into a more competitive system.[11]

Leopold Sedar Senghor voluntarily resigned from position of president in 1980 and Abdou Diouf came into power as Senghor's hand-picked successor.[4] Senghor became the first African head of state to voluntarily retire.[2]

In the 2000 presidential election, the Socialist Party of Senegal was defeated and was no longer the ruling party for the first time in 40 years.[2] Abdou Diouf, the 19-year incumbent of the Socialist Party, was defeated by Abdoulaye Wade. The removal of Diouf from office by an election broke the political monopoly the Socialist Party had on Senegal and helped establish Senegal as one of the African countries with the most advanced democracies.[4] Senegal became one of the first African countries to remove the head of government by voting instead of a coup or violent measures.[2] Wade was the candidate from the Senegalese Democratic Party and had been the leader of the political opposition against the Socialist Party for about 25 years.[3]

In the 2007 and 2012 presidential elections, Ousmane Tanor Dieng unsuccessfully ran. In 2007, the Socialist Party participated in a boycott of the June 2007 parliamentary elections and has not held seats in the National Assembly since.[10]Since 2012 the party has run in the parliamentary elections as part of the United in Hope coalition, the coalition of the presidential majority in support of Macky Sall.[12]

• Combat pour le socialisme

• Official website (in French)