Macky Sall Enters the U.N. Race Under a Cloud of Power, Protest and Legitimacy
- Apr 22
- 3 min read
By Ahmed Fathi & ATN News Team
UNHQ, New York: Hours before Macky Sall is set to face the United Nations General Assembly’s interactive dialogue, trucks carrying giant anti-Sall billboards circled near U.N. Headquarters, denouncing the former Senegalese president as a liability, invoking accountability, and warning against impunity. The spectacle was blunt and impossible to miss. It also captured the central reality of Sall’s candidacy more clearly than any polished campaign line: he enters this race not simply as a former head of state with continental stature, but as a candidate shadowed by allegations tied to deadly protest repression, unresolved legitimacy questions and a nomination that appears stronger on paper than in political consensus.
That is the source of Sall’s profile this year.
In a field where rivals can be framed through human rights prestige, technocratic crisis management or development fluency, Sall arrives as the candidate of presidential authority and African political weight. He served as president of Senegal from 2012 to 2024 and chaired the African Union in 2022, giving him exactly the sort of top-level executive experience that many member states instinctively respect. He can argue that the next secretary-general should be someone who has governed, navigated regional diplomacy and understands how power is actually exercised rather than merely described.
That argument would be stronger if his candidacy carried clean political backing. It does not. Sall was formally nominated not by Senegal, but by Burundi. The United Nations recorded Burundi’s nomination in March, making his candidacy procedurally valid. But the symbolism was awkward: a former president of Senegal seeking the world’s top diplomatic office through another country’s sponsorship.
The problem grew from there. Senegal’s government later informed the African Union that it had not endorsed Sall’s candidacy at any stage, undercutting any impression that he was running with the blessing of his own state. At the same time, analysis of the AU process indicated that Sall was not the organization’s consensus candidate, despite the attempt by some to frame him that way. That leaves him in an exposed position: undeniably African, unquestionably experienced, yet unable to claim with confidence that he speaks for Africa in this race.
And then there is the heavier baggage. Human Rights Watch documented a pre-election crackdown in Senegal in early 2024, including arrests, restrictions on opposition activity and concerns over abuses by the security forces. Amnesty International has said Senegalese authorities must deliver justice, truth and reparation to victims of the violent repression of protests between 2021 and 2024. Associated Press, citing Amnesty, reported last year that at least 65 people were killed during opposition protests over that period. Sall has defenders, and the legal responsibility for specific acts remains contested. But the political fact is plain: he enters the U.N. race with serious accountability questions trailing him.
That is the contradiction at the heart of Sall’s candidacy. He may be the candidate most able to project presidential command in the room, while also being the one most vulnerable to questions about how he used power when he held it. He may look, at first glance, like the figure best positioned to capitalize on Africa’s long-standing claim to the secretary-generalship, while also lacking the clear African consensus that would make that claim politically potent. Authority is an asset in this race. So is legitimacy. Sall does not yet appear to possess both at the same time.
Wednesday’s dialogue will not decide his fate. The real filters still lie in the Security Council and the private arithmetic of the permanent five. But it will show whether Sall can turn the frame away from protest, contested sponsorship and repression-era baggage and back toward experience, stature and reform language. If he succeeds, he may look like a hardened political contender with broader reach than critics want to admit. If he fails, he may confirm the harshest reading of his candidacy: that he is not Africa’s standard-bearer in this race, but Africa’s most controversial entrant.
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