2024-03-04 20:18:58
The conclusions of a “national dialogue” recommending organizing the presidential election in Senegal on June 2, two months following the end of President Macky Sall’s mandate, were officially handed over to the head of state on Monday, provoking the anger of the ‘opposition. She requests the organization of the vote before April 2, the date of expiration of the presidential mandate.
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Senegalese President Macky Sall took a further step in determining a date for the presidential election by receiving on Monday March 4 a report recommending holding the vote on June 2, two months following the expiration of his mandate, to the great dismay of the opposition.
The Senegalese were supposed to go to the polls on February 25. But three weeks before the election, the head of state decreed the postponement of the election, citing the deep dissensions caused by the validation of the candidacies and the risk of new violence following the deadly ones of 2021 and 2023.
Denounced as a “constitutional coup d’état” by the opposition, this postponement caused a commotion in public opinion and demonstrations which left four dead. The Constitutional Council has since overturned Macky Sall, and the country, plunged into uncertainty, is awaiting a new election date.
On Monday, the president officially received the recommendations of a “national dialogue” he organized a week ago to emerge from the crisis. Almost the entire opposition, which is loudly demanding an election before April 2, boycotted the meeting.
The recommendations of this meeting are already known: the election would be held on June 2 and Macky Sall would remain in office until the inauguration of the fifth president of Senegal.
The head of state, elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2019 but not a candidate in 2024, “intends to contact the Constitutional Council to obtain its opinion on the questions of the date of the election and following April 2”, specifies the Presidency. Because the head of state has repeatedly stated that he will leave on April 2.
The prospect of a postponement of the vote to June 2 and a departure of the president on April 2 opens the way to an unprecedented situation and a legal vacuum, the Constitution not providing for this scenario.
The opposition calls for an accelerated organization of the vote
By vetoing the postponement on February 15, the Council wrote that “the mandate of the president (…) cannot be extended” and that “the date of the election cannot be postponed beyond the duration of the mandate”. The participants in the “national dialogue” invoke article 36 of the Constitution according to which the president “remains in office until the installation of his successor”.
A collective bringing together 16 opposition candidates is calling for the accelerated organization of the vote, before the expiration of the mandate.
A “Resistance Front”, an alliance of the political opposition and civil society organizations sealed on Thursday, mobilized a few hundred supporters on Saturday in Dakar and intends to maintain the pressure with rallies announced on Wednesday and Saturday. “We want an election before April 2 with the 19 candidates selected by the Constitutional Council and for Senegalese democracy to continue to shine,” explained Assane Camara, a 27-year-old trader, on Saturday.
Another subject of contention: an amnesty bill on the facts relating to political demonstrations between 2021 and 2024, which left dozens of dead and caused significant material damage such as the ransacking of the University of Dakar. The project, initiated by President Macky Sall in a “spirit of reconciliation”, must now be submitted to the National Assembly for adoption, perhaps as early as this week.
But it raises an outcry in the opposition and does not achieve unanimity within the presidential majority. The opposition denounces a “denial of justice” and sees it as a maneuver to ensure impunity for those responsible for the repression, including government officials.
In a column published Friday, more than 200 academics describe the project as “an invitation to amnesia.” “Erasing the crimes of the past would amount to flouting the memory of the victims and weakening the foundations of the rule of law,” write the signatories.
Amnesty International, in a press release published Monday, sees in the project an “affront to the families of the victims” and a “disturbing premium on impunity”. The organization calls for investigations to be carried out “into the use of force by the defense and security forces during the demonstrations”.
#Senegal – Amnesty law
The amnesty bill submitted to Parliament is an affront to the families of the victims of the violence which took place between March 2021 and February 2024.
It is also a disturbing premium on impunity
We explain why in this #thread
— Amnesty Senegal (@AmnestySenegal) March 4, 2024
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#recommended #date #June #opposition #refuses
