2024-02-04 13:20:18
This is not to the taste of the international community or the local opposition. A few hours after Senegalese Head of State Macky Sall spoke announcing an indefinite postponement of the presidential election, Paris is calling for elections this Sunday “as soon as possible”.
“We call on the authorities to remove uncertainties around the electoral calendar so that the elections can be held as quickly as possible and in compliance with the rules of Senegalese democracy,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
This postponement opens a “period of uncertainty”, declared the EU spokesperson this Sunday. “The European Union (…) calls on all stakeholders to work, in a peaceful climate, to hold a transparent, inclusive and credible election, as soon as possible and in compliance with the rule of law, in order to to preserve the long tradition of stability and democracy in Senegal,” said Nabila Massrali in a press release.
The United States, “deeply concerned” by the announcement of the postponement, urged on Saturday “all participants in the Senegalese electoral process to engage peacefully in the important effort aimed at quickly setting a new date and the conditions of a free and fair election.” The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also expressed its “concern” and asked the authorities in a press release to work to quickly set a new date.
The opposition wants to continue its campaign
The president elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2019 made the announcement on Saturday evening in a brief intervention on public television, a few hours before the campaign opened on Sunday at midnight (local and GMT). An unprecedented decision taken in a context of deep political crisis and which sparked protests. The vote was scheduled for February 25.
The opposition in Senegal is calling for demonstrations this Sunday in Dakar and plans to launch the electoral campaign as planned. “We met and agreed to come together from 3 p.m. to start our campaign collectively,” Habib Sy, one of the 20 candidates who were to compete in the postponed election, declared on the radio. Senegalese opponent Khalifa Sall, one of the main presidential candidates, had already called on the entire country on Saturday to “stand up” against the postponement of the vote.
The announcement 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.
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