Senegal’s opposition has called for protests in Dakar on Sunday and plans to launch the election campaign as planned, rejecting President Macky Sall’s decision to postpone the February 25 presidential election, an unprecedented decision that sparked an outcry. The announcement made on Saturday in a context of political crisis by the president elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2019 caused concern abroad. It once again plunges this country, known as an island of stability in Africa, into the unknown, but which has experienced various episodes of deadly unrest since 2021.
Police fire tear gas
Gendarmes were deployed on Sunday afternoon in Dakar at the planned starting point, a large boulevard located in the southwest of Dakar, of the march announced by the opposition, AFP photographers noted. Law enforcement officers had notably taken up positions around the tracks and installations of an electric bus network which would soon be in circulation, they reported. Senegalese gendarmes fired tear gas grenades in Dakar on Sunday at hundreds of people who were converging to protest against the postponement of the presidential election, an AFP journalist noted.
Men and women of all ages converged in the early afternoon towards a roundabout on one of the capital’s main roads, at the call of several candidates and the gendarmes unleashed heavy grenade fire. tear gas to disperse them.
Several opposition candidates announced to the press their decision to ignore President Sall’s decision and maintain the launch of their electoral campaign on Sunday. “We systematically reject the decree (postponing the presidential election). We are meeting all Senegalese this Sunday for a march” in Dakar, declared Cheikh Tidiane Youm, an opposition spokesperson on private radio RFM. “We met and agreed to gather from 3:00 p.m. (local and GMT) to start our (electoral) campaign collectively,” declared Habib Sy, one of the twenty candidates, on the same radio.
“Period of uncertainty”
The European Union said on Sunday that the postponement of the presidential election opens a “period of uncertainty” in the country, calling for elections “as soon as possible”. France called on Senegal to remove the “uncertainties” created by the postponement so that the vote could be held “as soon as possible”. The United States, “deeply concerned”, urged political actors on Saturday “to engage peacefully” to “quickly set a new date and the conditions for a free and fair election”.
For its part, the regional organization ECOWAS expressed its “concern” and asked the authorities to work to quickly set a new date. President Sall announced on Saturday, a few hours before the official opening of the campaign, the repeal of the decree setting the presidential election for February 25. This is the first time since 1963 that a presidential election by direct universal suffrage has been postponed in Senegal, a country which has never experienced a coup d’état, a rarity on the continent.
Furthermore, deputies are meeting on Monday to examine the bill tabled by candidate and opponent Karim Wade for the postponement of the presidential election for six months, AFP learned on Saturday from Parliament. The text must be approved by 3/5 of the 165 deputies to be validated.
Separation of powers
President Sall invoked the conflict which broke out between the Constitutional Council and the National Assembly after the final validation by the court of twenty candidacies and the elimination of several dozen others. At the initiative of Karim Wade, a failed candidate who called into question the integrity of two constitutional judges and demanded the postponement of the election, the Assembly approved the creation of a commission of inquiry into the conditions of validation of applications.
Against all expectations, deputies from the presidential camp supported the approach. It provoked a lively dispute over the separation of powers, but also fueled suspicion of a government plan to postpone the presidential election and avoid a defeat. The candidate of the presidential camp, Prime Minister Amadou Ba, is contested within his own ranks and faces dissidents. On the contrary, the anti-system candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye, whose candidacy was validated by the Constitutional Council although he has been imprisoned since 2023, has established himself in recent weeks as a credible candidate for victory, a nightmare scenario for the presidential camp.
Senegal cannot “afford a new crisis” after deadly unrest in March 2021 and June 2023, said President Sall, announcing “a national dialogue” for “a free, transparent and inclusive election” and reiterating his commitment not to not be a candidate. According to the electoral code, a decree setting the date of a new presidential election must be published no later than 80 days before the vote, which would lead to the end of April in the best case. President Sall therefore risks remaining in her post beyond the end of her mandate on April 2.