Following the decision of the Constitutional Council of Senegal to invalidate the postponement of the presidential elections to December 15, President Macky Sall promised this Friday to organize the scrutiny “as soon as possible.” The delay in the elections led to violent protests, in which at least three people died.
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The Senegalese president, Macky Sall, committed this Friday, February 16, to organizing the presidential elections “as soon as possible”, after the Constitutional Council annulled the decision to postpone the elections scheduled for the end of February.
After this decision, the country was waiting for the president's reaction.
Sall “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 elections as soon as possible,” said a statement from his office.
“As soon as possible” is precisely the deadline set by the Constitutional Council on Thursday, February 15, when it invalidated the postponement of the presidential elections to December 15. Since then, different calls to President Sall to meet the deadline have come from all areas, inside and outside the country.
Senegal is going through one of the worst political crises in its post-independence history after President Sall announced on February 3 that he would postpone the presidential elections, scheduled for February 25. The National Assembly endorsed the decision, postponed the elections until December 15 and extended Sall's mandate until the investiture of his successor.
The trigger for the violent protests
The postponement of the elections triggered clashes that left three dead and dozens detained.
Although new demonstrations have been called for Friday afternoon and Saturday, the Constitutional Court's decision has been widely hailed as a calming factor and, by mid-afternoon on Friday, there was virtually no response to the calls for gatherings in Dakar. , where the police and journalists outnumbered the protesters.
The opposition and civil society denounced a “constitutional coup” after the postponement of the elections, accusing the ruling party of wanting to avoid the defeat of its candidate, Prime Minister Amadou Ba, and suggesting that Macky Sall wanted to remain in power.
The president assures that he will not run for a third term and has justified his decision by fear of a disputed vote, which could cause new outbreaks of violence after those in 2021 and 2023.
The Constitutional Council invoked the principle of “intangibility” of the five-year presidential term.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union, France and the United Kingdom asked the authorities to abide by the court's decision.
The postponement of the presidential elections had alarmed key international partners, concerned about the possibility that a country known for its stability in a troubled region would give way to violence.
The questions now focus on the date of the elections and the list of contenders. The Constitutional Council validated 20 candidacies in January, but government spokesman Abdou Karim Fofana said the Council did not impose a date.
One of the main candidates, Khalifa Sall, told the press that the head of state “must make the necessary arrangements for us to discuss and see how to implement the Council's decision”, but did not specify whether the election should take place before or after the end of President Macky Sall's term. But he did share a common perception following the council's decision: on April 2, when his term expires, President Sall “must go.”
This article was adapted from its original in French
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