The Senegalese head of state Macky Sall, subject to pressure from all sides, pledged on Friday to organize the presidential election “as soon as possible”, after the resounding veto opposed by the Constitutional Council to his decision to postpone the election initially scheduled for the end of February. The day after 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.
One of the worst political crises in the history of Senegal
President Macky Sall broke the silence in the form of a press release published by his services. 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 on Thursday 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 after forcibly evacuating the opposition. It extended the mandate of the head of state until the installation of his successor.
This postponement caused clashes which left three people dead during repressed demonstrations, which gave rise to dozens of arrests. New calls for demonstrations have been launched for Friday afternoon and Saturday. The decision of the Constitutional Court was widely hailed as a factor of appeasement and the slogans found almost no echo Friday mid-afternoon 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” after 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 to him 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 after those of 2021 and 2023. The Constitutional Council, seized by opponents of the postponement, invoked the principle of “intangibility” of the five-year duration of the presidential mandate.
The election must be held before the end of Macky Sall’s mandate on April 2
The Economic Commission 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.
In the streets of Dakar, Mamadou Caba, a 55-year-old employee, like others, expressed his relief. “It is fortunate that the Constitutional Council is taking a decision such as it has taken, at least here we are halfway to the right solution,” he said. For Babacar Gueye, a constitutionalist coordinating the civil society collective Aar Sunu Election (“Let’s protect our election”) opposed to the postponement, its invalidation is “historic”.
Faced with the concern shared by Senegal’s foreign partners, the system “finally showed that it (had) the resources to overcome very big crises”, he told AFP. 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. He did not say whether the election should take place before or after the departure of President Macky Sall. But he shared a common perception after the Council’s decision: on April 2, when his mandate expires, President Sall “must go.”
In opposition, Amadou Ba declared that “Macky must organize the presidential election before the end of his mandate on April 2, 2024, which remains the handover date,” reported the daily Walf. Amadou Ba is the representative of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, number two of the dissolved Pastef party, which brought to power after 2021 a standoff punctuated by murderous episodes. Hundreds of supporters of this party and members of civil society were arrested. In a gesture of appeasement, 134 of them have been released since Thursday and 90 were to be released on Friday, according to the Ministry of Justice.