In Senegal, 16 of the 19 presidential candidates refused a dialogue proposed by the head of state, a little over a week after the cancellation of the postponement of this election. Postponement announced on February 3 by Macky Sall then voted on by deputies on February 5. In a separate press release, the citizen collective Aar Sunu Election denounces a “ attempted diversion through invitation to inappropriate dialogue “. In an interview given to several Senegalese media on February 22, the outgoing president indicated that he would leave office on April 2, at the end of his second term, but did not communicate a new date for the election initially planned. this February 25.
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With our correspondent in Dakar, Léa-Lisa Westerhoff
At Senegal, 16 of the 19 candidates selected for the presidential race rejected, on February 23, 2024, the dialogue proposed by Macky Sall, the day after an interview during which the head of state did not set a new date for this election initially scheduled for February 25. “ We oppose any dialogue on this issue, we demand a presidential election before April 2 “, date of the end of the mandate of the outgoing president, one of these 16 candidates, Boubacar Camara, told the press.
“ The only possible dialogue is that with the candidates validated by the Constitutional Council », Affirms candidate Mame Boye Diao. “ Otherwise, it’s heading towards a dead end “, as the points of view are divergent: presidential before April 2 in one case, and resumption of the electoral process from scratch for those who had failed at the sponsorship stage. Thierno Alassane Sall, the candidate of the Republic of Values party, promises to refer the matter to the Constitutional Council this Friday for refusing to set the date of the election.
Finally, rejection also from the side of an important citizen movement. In a separate press release, the civil society collective Aar Sunu Election (“Let’s protect our election”) denounces a “ attempted diversion through invitation to inappropriate dialogue (which) is unacceptable “. There ” only requirement of the moment being the fixing of the date of the presidential election » before April 2 as requested by the Constitutional Council.
Calls for demonstrations have already been launched to demand that the vote be held before this date. But will they be heard, after the four deaths already recorded in the protests which followed the announcement of the postponement and while the government is trying to play the relaxation card?
Read alsoSenegal: Macky Sall leaves the date of the presidential election pending
The day before, in an interview given to several Senegalese media, Macky Sall had engaged in a clarification exercise, while the report in extremis presidential election on February 3 plunged the country into an unprecedented political crisis. In the end, the outgoing president assured that he wanted to leave office as planned on April 2, at the end of his second term, but he did not announce the date of the presidential election which he had decreed to be postponed. And the gray areas therefore remain numerous.
On the one hand, there was this communication exercise eagerly awaited by the Senegalese, with a smiling Macky Sall, installed at the presidential palace, the flag of Senegal and the African Union behind him and who responded in a reassuring tone to journalists.
The outgoing president presented himself as a Republican attached to the values of democracy and democratic change. “ April 2 is the end of my mandate, so I plan to leave office “, he repeated several times.
A peacemaker too: Macky Sall did not speak out against the release of his yesterday’s enemy: the number one opponent Ousmane Sonko, detained since the end of July 2023.
Read alsoSenegal: Ousmane Sonko, a political-judicial saga in eight dates
But, fundamentally, the main questions remain: when will this presidential election that he himself canceled take place? The Head of State has discharged this responsibility which was nevertheless entrusted to him by the Constitutional Council on February 15: that of setting the date and convening the electoral body.
It will be up to a national dialogue to do so in two days with, around the table, the candidates selected and rejected by the Constitutional Council, political parties, unions, civil and religious society.
Ditto for the other crucial question: that of the interim head of Senegal if the presidential election were to be held after the departure of Macky Sall on April 2. The question of an extension of the president’s functions after the end of his mandate remains a possibility today, via article 36 of the Constitution, which Macky Sall cited twice. It states that “ the current President of the Republic remains in office until the installation of his successor “.