Final week, Senegal’s President Macky Sall unilaterally postponed presidential elections by a number of months simply weeks earlier than the deliberate date of February 25, sparking protests throughout a rustic already on edge from months of political stress. On Monday, the Nationwide Meeting descended into chaos as opposition members who tried to dam a invoice cementing the delay had been arrested and policemen fired tear fuel at protesters gathered outdoors.
Sall, who will finish a two-term tenure on April 2, and who has said that he wouldn’t run for a 3rd time period, mentioned the postponement was vital due to a dispute over the checklist of accepted candidates for the elections. That is the primary time polls have been postponed within the nation. There’s hypothesis that he has delayed the elections as a result of he isn’t assured in regards to the reputation of Prime Minister Amadou Ba, the candidate for Sall’s Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) coalition, who has been accepted by the Constitutional Council. Ba’s workplace has not commented on the disaster.
Many Senegalese are sad with the postponement and imagine Sall, who has been in workplace since 2012 and is now not eligible to run himself, is attempting to carry onto energy for longer. Opposition events have launched a authorized problem to reverse the delay.
Scores gathered to protest within the capital Dakar after Sall introduced the shift, however they had been forcefully dispersed by the police.
Right here’s why voters in Senegal are sceptical, and what the delay means for the nation.
Why was the vote postponed?
On February 3, after rumours appeared on Senegalese social media a couple of potential postponement, Sall introduced in a televised speech that elections slated for February 25 would certainly be postponed.
The official marketing campaign season was scheduled to kick off the following day – set to final from February 4 till the elections on February 25.
In his assertion on Saturday, Sall mentioned he would work to handle points that had arisen when a handful of distinguished candidates had been disqualified by the nation’s Constitutional Council for not assembly set standards. Questions round whether or not the council was discriminatory of their choice prompted lawmakers to launch a probe into the accreditation course of in January.
Amongst these candidates who’ve been excluded is Karim Wade, a former minister and the son of former President Abdoulaye Wade, who was disqualified for having twin French and Senegalese citizenship – in opposition to the foundations for candidates. Wade has lived in Qatar since 2016, when he was launched from jail on a presidential pardon from Sall. He was serving a six-year time period for corruption and has not tried to return to the nation since then.
Earlier, Wade’s opposition Senegalese Democratic Celebration (PDS), submitted a proper request to postpone the election.
One other fashionable candidate who has been excluded is Ousmane Sonko, arguably Sall’s biggest challenger. Sonko, who positioned third within the 2019 elections and who has been the reason for a lot political stress up to now three years, was disqualified for having a prison document after he was imprisoned on costs of “corrupting minors and inciting rebel” in 2023. Sonko continues to be in detention.
Sall mentioned he had signed a decree to annul the foundations that require elections to be held after 5 years. Questions on whether or not the Structure of Senegal permits for a president to successfully take away necessities to carry an election via a decree have arisen, however haven’t been clarified.
Sall additionally introduced that he would instigate a “nationwide dialogue” and take “reconciliation” measures to resolve the problems inside the council with out specifying what these steps can be.
“These troubled situations may significantly undermine the credibility of the poll by sowing the seeds of pre- and post-electoral disputes,” he mentioned within the reside handle, including once more that he has no plans to run for a 3rd time period.
Does the president have the ability to delay an election?
Whereas some consultants say the president doesn’t have powers to postpone elections, Oumar Ba, a political scientist at Cornell College in america, mentioned Sall’s modifications do fall inside the framework of current insurance policies.
“Word that he issued a decree that annulled the earlier decree that had known as on the voters to the polls on 25 February,” Ba mentioned, including that the precise postponement, because the president made clear in his handle, was initiated by an opposition occasion inside the Nationwide Meeting and consecrated by a vote there.
“To me, you will need to not lose sight of this institutional framework inside which the shifting elements of the disaster are working. This, nevertheless, additionally reveals that Sall’s declare that it’s an institutional disaster that warrants the postponement is doubtful. All of the establishments appear to be working as they had been meant, so there isn’t any institutional disaster.”
How have voters reacted?
Sall’s announcement has not gone down effectively with the Senegalese public.
Tensions have been brewing within the nation since December 2020, when the president made a remark that appeared to counsel he would run for a 3rd time period, which isn’t allowed underneath the structure. Sall’s supporters argued on the time {that a} evaluation of the structure (which modified the presidential time period from seven to 5 years) had “reset” his phrases. The president was first elected in 2012 for seven years, and once more in 2019 – this time for 5 years.
Though Sall said in an interview in July 2023 that he was not going to run, broad mistrust lingered as a result of he had been seen as cracking down arduous on the opposition lately.
In March 2021, lethal riots broke out after Sonko, who is very fashionable with Senegalese youth, was arrested over allegations that he had raped a feminine therapeutic massage parlour employee. He additionally confronted a bunch of authorized challenges on the time, together with that he had defamed and “insulted” one other politician. His supporters imagine the instances are politically motivated and that Sonko is just not responsible of any of the allegations.
A whole bunch of Sonko supporters took to the streets after his arrest in March. Some 13 folks died throughout three days of countrywide riots because the police cracked down with reside ammunition. The Senegalese authorities additionally shut down entry to the web through the violence.
Sonko, who can also be mayor of the southern metropolis of Ziguinchor, was ultimately acquitted of the rape costs in June 2023, however was sentenced to 2 years in jail for “corrupting minors”, which is a lesser misdemeanour cost. He at present stays in detention. Sonko’s occasion, African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF), has been dissolved, and he was planning to run as an impartial candidate in these elections.
The conviction led to his elimination from the elections checklist, however Sonko’s legal professionals challenged the choice, resulting in the Supreme Courtroom declaring him eligible to run in December 2023. Nonetheless, the electoral school has not reinstated him on a listing of 20 accepted candidates. The council mentioned on January 5 that Sonko, in his software, didn’t submit proof of funds price almost $50,000, which is likely one of the necessities. Sonko’s authorized staff had beforehand instructed reporters that authorities establishments had been irritating their makes an attempt to acquire all the mandatory paperwork.
What was the opposition’s response to Sall’s announcement?
On Monday, February 5, after Sall’s weekend assertion suspending the elections, the Nationwide Meeting handed a invoice that set a brand new election date of December 15, cementing the president’s determination. The invoice was backed by 105 of 165 meeting members.
Some opposition lawmakers had been forcefully faraway from the home through the debate over the invoice and voting turned to chaos as some members bodily tried to dam the proceedings.
One opposition chief instructed Reuters that three opposition lawmakers had been arrested. One among them, Man Marius Sagna, was amongst those that tried to cease the vote within the meeting by blocking the dais. Many of the lawmakers who voted in favour of the invoice had been from the ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) coalition. Opposition teams claimed the invoice solely serves to increase Sall’s keep in workplace.
Exterior the Nationwide Meeting constructing in Dakar, scores of protesters and opposition supporters gathered to protest in opposition to the invoice as the controversy unfolded. Senegalese police fired tear fuel to disperse them.
Two opposition events have filed courtroom petitions to problem the delay to the elections.
International locations and worldwide establishments have expressed concern. Senegal holds the uncommon place of being one among few nations which have by no means had a navy coup in Africa – actually the one one in West Africa, except for Cape Verde. Nonetheless, the current violence, in addition to Sall’s weekend announcement, is souring its popularity, as opposition candidates have equated his transfer to a forceful takeover of energy.
On Tuesday, the US Division of State mentioned the postponement ran “opposite to Senegal’s sturdy democratic custom”.
The Financial Group of West African States (ECOWAS) didn’t straight discuss with the brand new election date in a press release on Monday, however prompt that the postponement could also be unconstitutional. The regional financial bloc is in a bind, following the exit of three military-led nations from its folds: Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.
“The ECOWAS Fee encourages the political class to urgently take the mandatory measures to re-establish the electoral calendar in accordance with the provisions of the structure,” the bloc mentioned within the assertion.
The African Union additionally issued a press release elevating considerations in regards to the delay to the elections. It mentioned the elections needs to be held as quickly as potential and ”in transparency, peace and nationwide concord”.
What is going to occur subsequent?
Calm has returned to the streets of Dakar in the interim as voters wait to see what Sall’s proposed reforms to the Constitutional Council and the electoral system shall be. On Senegalese social media, there are calls for large protests, however there may be nonetheless a visual police presence to discourage gatherings.
In a press release on Wednesday, Sall’s workplace mentioned the Ministry of Justice ought to “pacify the general public area” in reference to the disruptions his Saturday announcement prompted.
The Senegalese telecommunications company introduced that it might limit cellular web late on Monday after the parliamentary vote, however providers have since been restored. A personal tv station, Walf TV, was taken off air for “inciting violence”, in response to the authorities.
Though the president re-iterated – once more – that he wouldn’t run for workplace in his Saturday speech, opposition teams reject his claims that he’s working within the pursuits of the nation.
“We really feel this can be a constitutional coup,” Yassine Fall, the now-dissolved PASTEF’s vice chairman, instructed Al Jazeera.
“Macky Sall is just not doing this for us, he’s doing this in opposition to us. [He] understands that if we go to elections, we’ll win by a landslide victory, however he desires to remain in energy or have somebody from his occasion to be elected.”
Sall has not made any new bulletins on the measures he’ll take to reform the Constitutional Council. Some consultants say it’s probably he’ll dissolve the unit and type a brand new one, a course of that would show prolonged. Ba, the Cornell professor, mentioned many within the nation are unsure.
“We don’t even know what’s going to occur on April 2, when Sall’s time period successfully ends,” he mentioned. “Will he keep on? If he does, will he type a coalition or transitional authorities which can embody some opposition figures? That is unchartered territory for the Senegalese nation.”
