Policy Center for the New South

Ahead of the Senegalese Presidential Elections : Taking the Temperature from Twitter Mining

As Senegalese population are due to join the polls on Sunday February 24th, 2019 to elect their next president, several voters are turning to social networks to express their thoughts. While social networks penetration rates are not public information in Senegal, looking at the interactions online can be interesting. For this paper, our focus will be on Twitter where most of the action happens ahead of the elections. Our analysis will put the emphasis on two candidates: Ousmane Sonko and Macky Sall. The reason for us restraining our...