2024-02-03 14:25:42
In a speech to the nation, Senegalese President Macky Sall announced on Saturday the postponement to an indefinite date of the presidential election initially scheduled for February 25. This decision comes just a few hours before the opening of the electoral campaign for the presidential vote.
The Senegalese head of state Macky Sall announced, Saturday February 3, that he had repealed his decree setting February 25 as the date of the presidential election, following the establishment of a parliamentary commission investigating two judges of the Constitutional Council whose integrity in the electoral process is contested.
“I signed the decree of February 3, 2024 repealing the decree” of November 26, 2023 setting the presidential election for February 25, 2024, said the President of Senegal in his speech to the Nation, a few hours before the opening of the campaign electoral for the presidential election for which twenty candidates were to compete, without two tenors of the opposition.
“I will initiate an open national dialogue, in order to create the conditions for a free, transparent and inclusive election,” he said in his speech, without giving a date.
The United States declared itself “deeply concerned” by the announcement of the indefinite postponement of the presidential election, and urged the authorities to set a new date “quickly and calmly”.
“We urge all participants in the Senegalese electoral process to engage peacefully in the important effort aimed at quickly setting a new date and the conditions for a free and fair election,” says the Office of Affairs on X (formerly Twitter). African Affairs of the State Department, adding that Senegal “has a strong tradition of democracy and peaceful transitions of power.”
This is the first time since 1963 that a presidential election by direct universal suffrage has been postponed in Senegal, a West African country presented as an island of stability on the continent.
“Our country has been confronted for several days with a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Council, in open conflict once morest the backdrop of an alleged case of corruption of judges,” he said.
He affirmed that Senegal might not “afford a new crisis” following deadly unrest in March 2021 and June 2023 and announced “an open national dialogue, in order to create the conditions for a free, transparent and inclusive election”.
He reiterated his commitment not to be a candidate.
President Macky Sall had promised at the end of December and on several occasions to hand over power to the elected president at the beginning of April.
The postponement was announced once morest a backdrop of conflict between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Council, which validated twenty candidacies in January, a record.
This election was shaping up to be the most indecisive since independence in 1960. Doubt arose over the chances of Prime Minister Amadou Ba, designated by Macky Sall in September as the presidential camp’s candidate. This choice deeply divided his camp.
The Constitutional Council excluded dozens of contenders from the ballot.
Among them, two opposition leaders: the anti-system candidate Ousmane Sonko, in prison since July 2023 notably for calling for insurrection and disqualified by the Council following a conviction for defamation in a separate case, and Karim Wade , minister and son of ex-president Abdoulaye Wade (2000-2012).
Read alsoAmadou Ba, Senegalese Prime Minister: “I will win the presidential election in the first round”
Investigation into two constitutional judges
After the publication of the final list of candidates, Karim Wade’s coalition initiated the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into two of the seven judges of the Constitutional Council whose integrity it calls into question.
The National Assembly approved on January 31, following tumultuous debates, the formation of this commission on the candidate validation process. A large number of members of the presidential camp voted for this commission.
The support of government deputies for Karim Wade’s camp has caused trouble. Opponents of the outgoing president suspected a plan to postpone the presidential election because those in power feared losing it.
The Constitutional Council is an essential body of the electoral process. He is called upon to proclaim the results of the presidential election and to rule on possible disputes.
Shortly following the announcement of an indefinite postponement of the presidential election, Minister Secretary General of the Senegalese government Abdou Latif Coulibaly announced his resignation to regain his “full and complete freedom”, he announced in a press release.
After having “taken very careful note of the address to the Senegalese people, I made the decision to draw all the consequences from all this, to leave the government”, said this former journalist, renowned in Senegal and brother of one of the judges suspected of corruption in the case invoked by President Sall to postpone the vote.
He said he was leaving “to be able to defend my opinions and my political convictions. This freedom is essential to me at this time.”
The Senegalese opponent Khalifa Sall, one of the main candidates announced for the presidential election, called on the entire country to “stand up” once morest the postponement of the election.
“All of Senegal must stand up. All democratic political forces and civil society should unite so that this project does not succeed,” declared the former mayor of Dakar – no relation to the head of the ‘State – during a press conference.
“Postponement of maximum six months”
The office of the National Assembly adopted on Saturday a bill, at the initiative of Karim Wade’s coalition, relating to a “postponement of maximum six months” of the presidential election of February 25, announced public television.
The deputies must then meet in committee to examine the text, before a plenary on an unspecified date.
Rose Wardini, one of the two women whose application was accepted, gynecologist and civil society actress, was arrested Friday as part of an investigation into her presumed Franco-Senegalese nationality, according to this source.
Any candidate for the presidency “must be exclusively of Senegalese nationality”, says the Constitution. The case of this candidate was mentioned on Saturday by President Macky Sall as an element of the postponement decision.
Karim Wade, 55, born in France to a Senegalese father and a mother of French origin, was excluded from the vote because of his dual Senegalese and French nationality, according to the Constitutional Council.
He denounced “a scandalous decision” and “a new legal plot”, following being prevented from competing in the 2019 presidential election due to his conviction in 2015 to six years in prison for illicit enrichment.
Detained for more than three years, he was pardoned in 2016 by President Macky Sall, and has since lived in exile abroad.
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