Senegal, July 10th of 2022.

It was on the month of July that parliamentary elections were going to occur in Senegal. With Macky Sall overlooking his party, he wanted to make sure that his people were going to win the election, and for that, he needed to work as much as possible on restraining the Gorgal Wadata, to stop their boycotting of the elections if nothing else, which is why, by the early morning of July 11th, Husain al-Mousa was in handcuffs under the charge of civil disobedience, and so many others that participated in the March of the Purest. When looking up to their Mullah, a single statement was released, and it was the following: “And it is He who is the only deity in the heaven and on the Earth. And He is the Wise, the Knowing.” He urged the members to not practice any violence, but to make sure that the populace is aware of the severe crimes of Macky Sall.

It was then that the parties knew to capitalize on Macky’s failures, and rally themselves around the Mullah; this was an extremely good PR move for the Gorgal Wadata, who were being legitimized by political figures as an efficient and fair domestic organization, keen on establishing good Islamic morals on the people.

Senegal, July 30th of 2022.

The Mullah himself, along with the GW, refused to believe in the power of elections; it was only through the popular will to expel the tyrants that Islam would ever succeed, which is why Bahir urged the Gorgal Wadata to spread themselves over the rural areas of Senegal and do sit-ins wherever a voting station was available. It was a recipe for government anger and a crackdown ensued, which led to even further acts by the Gorgal Wadata to interfere in the elections.

The National Assembly is composed of 165 seats, of which 125 were part of Macky Sall’s party, the Allliance pour la république, or APR. Following the boycotting by the Gorgal Wadata, and an extremely low voter turnout of 55%, the APR, or Benno Bokk Yakar Coalition, ended the election with 86 seats, a decrease of 31.2% in seats. The Manko Taxawú Sénégal Coalition received a total of 14 seats, an increase of 100% compared to their 2017 results of 7 seats. The Manko Wattu Sénégal Coalition received a total of 22 seats, an increase of 15.7% in seats. Finally, the Anda Saxal Liggeey Coalition received 1 seat, the Manko Yeesal Senegal Coalition received 1 seat and the Ndawi Askan Wi received 1 seat. The Prime Minister was, once again, Mohammed Dionne, selected by Macky Sall due to his competent policies and his insistence to the President for being a hardliner against Gorgal Wadata and Mullah Bahir.

This result proved to be fearsome for Macky Sall, who now had to balance himself carefully in order to even get a new Act passed through the Assembly. While he still retained a majority, his party held some belief in his power to manage this crisis, but not too much. These dangers have put Macky on a hard-line stance when it comes to the imprisoned Mullah Bahir and other members of the Gorgal Wadata, such as Husain al-Mousa; this, by consequence, has led to a change in the strategies of the GW, including a more aggressive approach to recruitment and preaching, a take-over of some mosques and a subsidy program for impoverished entrepreneurs.

Even the soldiers of the Senegalese army received support from the Gorgal Wadata, soldiers were getting fresh water in hot days, praying sessions with members of the vanguard and Mullah Bahir himself even wrote letters, in Arabic, to these soldiers, who were grateful for his care. Even among the soldiers, the Mullah had some intense support, if anything because many of the officials saw the imprisonment as authoritarian and unfair, but still, behind bars, Bahir held his spirit high as he quoted Surah ali-Imran 3:139, “So do not weaken and do not grieve, and you will be superior if you are (true) believers.”