2024-02-16 16:11:10
After the decision of the Constitutional Council to invalidate the postponement of the presidential election to December 15, President Macky Sall pledged on Friday to organize the vote “as soon as possible”.
Published on: 02/16/2024 – 5:11 p.m.
3 mn
The Senegalese head of state Macky Sall pledged on Friday February 16 to organize the presidential election “as soon as possible”, following the veto put by the Constitutional Council on its decision to postpone the election initially scheduled for the end of February.
The day following this historic judgment of the “Wise Men”, the country, waiting to know when and how it was going to vote, was hanging on to the president’s reaction. President Sall broke the silence in the form of a press release.
He “intends to fully implement the decision of the Constitutional Council” and “will without delay carry out the necessary consultations for the organization of the presidential election as soon as possible”, says the text. “As soon as possible”, this is precisely the window set by the Constitutional Council on Thursday when it invalidated the postponement of the presidential election to December 15. Since then, calls have been raised from all sides, in the country and abroad, for President Sall to comply.
Senegal is going through one of the worst political crises in its post-independence history since the announcement on February 3 by President Sall of the de facto postponement of the presidential election, scheduled for February 25. The National Assembly then postponed the vote until December 15 following forcibly evacuating the opposition. It extended the mandate of the head of state until the installation of his successor.
Calls to demonstrate
This postponement caused clashes which left three people dead during repressed demonstrations and gave rise to dozens of arrests. New calls for demonstrations have been launched for Friday followingnoon and Saturday.
The decision of the Constitutional Court was widely hailed as a factor of appeasement and the slogans found almost no echo on Friday mid-followingnoon in Dakar at the assembly points, where police officers and journalists were more numerous than the demonstrators.
The opposition and civil society cried out for a “constitutional coup d’état” following the postponement, accusing the presidential camp of wanting to avoid the defeat of its candidate, Prime Minister Amadou Ba, and suspecting Macky Sall of wanting to stay in power.
The president swore that he would not run for a third term, justifying the postponement by the fear of a challenge to the vote likely to provoke new outbursts of violence following those of 2021 and 2023.
The Constitutional Council, contacted by opponents of the postponement, invoked the principle of “intangibility” of the five-year duration of the presidential mandate.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union, France and the United Kingdom called on the authorities to comply with the Court’s decision. The postponement of the presidential election had alarmed important international partners, worried that a country renowned for its stability in a troubled region would give in to violence.
The questions now relate to the date of the election and the list of competitors. The Constitutional Council validated 20 applications in January. Government spokesperson Abdou Karim Fofana noted that the Council was not imposing a date. He hinted at discussions between the president and political actors, “which will help organize things.”
The head of state “must make arrangements so that we can discuss, so that we can see how to implement the Council’s decision,” one of the main candidates, Khalifa Sall, told the press. did not specify whether the election should take place before or following the departure of President Sall. But he shared a common perception following the Council’s decision: on April 2, when his mandate expires, President Sall “must go.”
1708105658
#Senegal #Macky #Sall #commits #organizing #presidential #election
