West Africa
Senegal’s president rules out controversial third term
Center politician Macky Sall won a runoff election in 2012 against a former party comrade. photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
The opposition accuses Macky Sall of wanting to hold on to power in the West African country. Now the President is addressing the nation in a speech – and thus ending speculation.
Sall ended years of speculation about whether he would run again in 2024 despite a two-term limit of five years passed under him. At the beginning of June, after opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was sentenced to prison in an abuse trial, the worst unrest in decades broke out in the country with around 17 million inhabitants.
The opposition accused the head of state of wanting to eliminate his most likely challenger and remain in power. At least 16 people were killed, hundreds injured and hundreds arrested. The government deployed the army in the streets and intermittently blocked mobile internet. The authorities have since banned all opposition demonstrations in the capital, Dakar.
Senegal has not experienced a war or violent upheaval since gaining independence in 1960. Sall is the fourth president of the country on the Atlantic coast, which borders terrorism- and instability-ridden Mali in the Sahel to the east. In 2012, center politician Sall won a runoff election against his former party comrade Abdoulaye Wade – supported by the opposition, which wanted to prevent Wade from a controversial third term in office.