Serigne Guèye Diop regrets leaving Sandiara mayoralty
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Senego
During an interview on the Jury du dimanche programme on iRadio, Senegal's Minister of Industry and Trade, Serigne Guèye Diop, said he regretted having had to give up the mayoralty of Sandiara after his appointment to the government in April 2024. He argues for a second term for President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and criticises the rule requiring mayors who become ministers to give up their mandate, according to Xibaaru.
Senegal's Minister of Industry and Trade, Serigne Guèye Diop, says he regrets having had to give up his mandate as mayor of Sandiara after joining the government in 2024, and judges that mayors who become ministers should have been able to hold both posts. He made the remarks on the Jury du dimanche programme on iRadio, as reported by Xibaaru.
He challenges the choice of the first government led by Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko to require mayors appointed as ministers to give up their local mandate. According to him, holding both posts would have made it possible to keep a direct link with residents and to better carry the needs of the communes to the State, with part of the municipal tasks able to be entrusted to the deputy mayor. In April 2024, after his appointment to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, he had announced his resignation from the mayoralty of Sandiara, a commune in central-western Senegal; Aliou Gningue, the first deputy mayor, was subsequently elected to succeed him.
During the same interview, Serigne Guèye Diop argued for a second term for President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, judging that five years are not enough to set in motion the country's economic and industrial transformations. He draws on his experience in Sandiara, where he says he needed about ten years to begin an economic and social transformation. He also recounted his rapprochement with Bassirou Diomaye Faye before the second round of the 2024 presidential election: after his own candidacy was eliminated, he says he received a call from the then-detained candidate, and agreed to support him because of their convergence on patriotism and economic development.
The minister is one of five officials tasked with structuring Kiraay, the movement supporting the president, for which he is working on setting up cells, preparing the congress and selling membership cards. He cites trips to Ivory Coast, Guinea and Turkey to establish the movement among Senegalese in the diaspora, with the aim of forming cells of 50 people in villages, communes and departments. He also mentioned the rally held at the Caroline Faye stadium in Mbour for the two years of Bassirou Diomaye Faye's rule, claiming an attendance of 30,000 to 40,000 people.
This stance comes after several expressions of support for the head of state in recent days, notably the reaffirmation of support by two Senegalese ministers for Bassirou Diomaye Faye and the rallying, on 1 November, of Amadou Athié, who left PASTEF for Faye's dynamic.
