Senegal: President Macky Sall announces indefinite postponement of presidential elections

First modification: 02/03/2024 – 17:17

1 min

The Senegalese Head of State, Macky Sall, announced, on Saturday, February 3, that he had repealed the decree that set February 25 as the date of the presidential elections, following the creation of a parliamentary commission investigating two judges of the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 that repeals the decree” of November 26, 2023 that set the presidential elections for February 25, 2024, stated the president of Senegal in his speech to the Nation, a few hours before the start of the electoral campaign for the presidential elections.

The Constitutional Council approved that twenty candidates should compete, although it disqualified dozens, including opposition leaders, the anti-establishment candidate Ousmane Sonko, in prison since July 2023, in particular for having called for insurrection and disqualified by the Council after a conviction. for defamation in a separate case, and Karim Wade, a minister and son of former president Abdoulaye Wade (2000-2012).

In his speech, the president said:

I will initiate an open national dialogue, in order to create the conditions for free, transparent and inclusive elections

This is the first time since 1963 that a presidential election by direct universal suffrage has been postponed in Senegal.

President Macky Sall had set the presidential vote for February 25 and had promised, in late December and on several occasions since, to hand power to the president-elect at the end of the vote in early April.

Elected in 2012 for seven years and re-elected in 2019 for five years, he announced in July 2023 that he was not a candidate for a new term.

In September he named Prime Minister Amadou Ba, a presidential party official, as heir apparent, who said: “I will win the presidential election in the first round.”

With AFP