2024-02-29 20:35:00
Dakar, Feb 29 (APS) – The Minister of the Interior, Sidiki Kaba, spoke on Thursday in Dakar of a possible resumption of the electoral process, in the event that the President of the National Assembly succeeds Macky Sall from April 2, the date marking the end of the mandate of the outgoing head of state.
Sidiki Kaba believes that ”it is the President of the National Assembly who automatically becomes President of the Republic”, assuming that the Constitutional Council would be led to note a ”vacancy of power”.
He spoke with journalists, two days following the closure of the national dialogue organized by Macky Sall, prior to the choice of a date for the holding of the presidential election initially scheduled for February 25.
The President of the National Assembly, thus acceding to the highest functions of the State, will then be required to organize the election within sixty to ninety days, which means that he ‘there are no longer acquired rights’, that there are no longer 19 candidates selected at the end of the first phase of verification carried out by the Constitutional Council, ”it is the reopening of applications”, -he-said.
”So, the whole process will resume, this is what will happen if it is the President of the National Assembly who becomes President of the Republic,” insisted Mr. Kaba.
The Minister of the Interior believes that ”in this scenario, the powers of the President of the National Assembly will also be very limited”.
”There are a number of actions he cannot do, which are listed in the Constitution. Its main power remains the organization of the presidential election,” he stressed.
Participants in the national dialogue proposed that the Head of State summon voters by decree to the polls on June 2, for the holding of the presidential election initially scheduled for February 25.
They also proposed that the outgoing president, whose term ends April 2, might remain in office until his successor is installed.
The national dialogue was held last Monday and Tuesday, without the participation of 16 of the 19 candidates selected by the Constitutional Council.
Several actors claiming to be from civil society did not participate in this consultation aimed in particular at setting the date of the presidential election.
The announcement of the postponement of the election plunged the country into a political crisis, hence the holding of this consultation prior to the determination of a new date for the presidential election.
Suspicions of corruption
The outgoing president notably committed, on February 16, to “fully execute” a decision of the Constitutional Council inviting him to set a date for the presidential election, following the high court noted the impossibility of doing so. organize on February 25.
In this same decision, the Constitutional Council judged ”contrary to the Constitution” the adoption by the National Assembly of a law postponing the vote until December 15.
This parliamentary initiative law was passed on February 5, two days following the President of the Republic announced, during a speech addressed to the nation, the repeal of the decree by which he had summoned voters to the polls on February 25.
In making this decision on February 3, he invoked suspicions of corruption concerning magistrates among those who examined the 93 application files and deemed 20 of them admissible, then 19, following doctor Rose Wardini threw in the towel.
Members of the Freedom and Democracy parliamentary group had requested and obtained the establishment of a parliamentary commission of inquiry responsible for shedding light on allegations of corruption and “dubious connections”.
The opening of a judicial investigation put an end to the work of this commission of inquiry responsible for investigating the accusations made by the PDS once morest judges of the Constitutional Council.
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