Voters in Senegal go to the polls on Sunday to elect a brand new president in essentially the most wide-open election within the nation’s historical past. The vote comes a couple of weeks after the explosion of a profound political disaster triggered by its cancellation after which delay by President Macky Sall. FRANCE 24 takes a glance again at current occasions.
Senegal is ready to expertise a brand new stage in its electoral drama on Sunday as some 7 million voters go to the polls throughout the West African nation to elect their subsequent president.
The election is exceptional in a number of methods, not least as a result of it marks the top of President Macky Sall’s 12 years in energy. And with 18 candidates vying to succeed him, it’s the most wide-open presidential vote since Senegal gained independence from France in 1960.
It additionally marks the fruits of an intense political battle over the date of the polls, which started when Sall cancelled the election three weeks earlier than its preliminary date of February 25, sending shock waves all through Senegal. FRANCE 24 traces the important thing developments in the course of the democratic disaster that ensued.
Postponement of the vote
Sall introduced that the poll could be postponed indefinitely whereas talking on nationwide tv on February 3, only a few hours earlier than the beginning of the presidential marketing campaign.
“For the previous few days, our nation has been confronted with a dispute between the Nationwide Meeting and the Constitutional Council, in open battle over an alleged case of corruption of judges,” he mentioned, arguing that this example threatened the credibility of the vote.
FRANCE 24 Particular Version: Senegal vote postponed ‘indefinitely’
Senegalese lawmakers 4 days earlier accredited a parliamentary inquiry into how some potential candidates’ purposes to enter the race had been invalidated. The inquiry was known as for by the get together of Karim Wade, who was excluded from the competition attributable to his French citizenship, as solely residents of completely Senegalese nationality are allowed to run. Wade’s supporters mentioned they suspected two Constitutional Council judges of getting “doubtful connections” with some candidates, notably Prime Minister Amadou Ba, Sall’s most well-liked successor.
On the similar time, police took presidential candidate Rose Wardini, whose software had been validated by the Constitutional Council, into custody on expenses of “forgery, use of forgery and fraud” on suspicion of getting twin French-Senegalese nationality.
A political manoeuvre?
Sall mentioned on nationwide TV that “these troubled circumstances” might “sow the seeds of pre- and post-electoral dispute”.
“Our nation can not afford a brand new disaster” after episodes of violence in March 2021 and June 2023, he mentioned.
Sall introduced the institution of a “nationwide dialogue” for “a free, clear and inclusive election”, whereas reaffirming his dedication to not stand for a 3rd consecutive time period.
However Sall’s resolution to postpone the vote sparked many questions in Senegal, not least as a result of ruling get together MPs themselves had voted in favour of the parliamentary inquiry. Whereas these legislators mentioned they needed to clear the title of their candidate Amadou Ba, the opposition blasted a manoeuvre designed to torpedo the election and forestall his defeat.
Ba can also be dealing with two dissident candidates from inside his personal camp: former prime minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne and former inside minister Aly Ngouille Ndiaye.
However common opinion in Senegal holds that Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a candidate chosen by opposition chief Ousmane Sonko to exchange him after his personal candidacy was invalidated, poses the principle risk to the outgoing president’s most well-liked candidate.
Reacting to Sall’s resolution to postpone the election, lawyer and Faye supporter Amadou Ba (to not be confused with the prime minister) criticised the president’s arguments as “extremely unserious”, stating that the parliamentary fee of inquiry was arrange solely on “mere suspicions” of corruption.
The day after Sall’s televised speech, a whole bunch of Senegalese demonstrated in the capital Dakar, the place clashes broke out with police.
Lawmakers approve December polls
To cancel the February 25 election, Sall repealed a decree summoning the voters. All that remained was to set a brand new date. Wade’s coalition known as for a six-month postponement and submitted a invoice to parliament. Throughout a very tense session, lawmakers on February 5 approved December 15 as the brand new election date, judging the initially proposed date of August 25 to be unfit because of the wet season.
The brand new deadline meant that Sall’s mandate, attributable to finish on April 2, could be prolonged by 10 months. Many individuals in Senegal objected, denouncing a “constitutional coup d’état” enabling the president to carry on to energy.
Learn extraSenegal’s democratic record on the line as presidential vote delay sparks crisis
A number of presidential candidates lodged appeals with the Supreme Courtroom and the Constitutional Council to dam the postponement of the vote.
Tensions shortly escalated within the streets. Police cracked down on demonstrations organised throughout Senegal on February 9 and within the days that adopted. 4 individuals died in Dakar, Saint-Louis and Ziguinchor – the southern city the place Sonko was elected mayor in 2022 – in reference to the protests, the worst outbreak of violence in the course of the election disaster.
Constitutional Council guidelines in opposition to postponement
The Constitutional Council on February 15 delivered its verdict on the attraction of the election postponement, and it was a transparent blow to Sall: the court docket annulled his decree abrogating the vote for lack of authorized foundation. The council additionally discovered that the regulation adopted by parliament to postpone the vote violated the structure, a second no-go.
Noting “the impossibility of organising the presidential election on the initially scheduled date” of February 25, the Constitutional Council requested “the competent authorities to carry it as quickly as potential”.
The “nationwide dialogue” organised by Sall however boycotted by the opposition really useful in early March that the delayed vote happen on June 2. In that situation, Sall would stay in workplace till the inauguration of Senegal’s fifth president. The proposal was rejected by the Constitutional Council, which dominated that the election should happen earlier than the top of Sall’s time period on April 2.
The president and the council on March 7 lastly agreed to carry Senegal’s election on March 24. The brand new date has the benefit of not falling on the Easter vacation, however meant that the presidential marketing campaign unfolded in the course of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – a primary in Senegal’s historical past. The marketing campaign interval was additionally shortened from 21 to 17 days.
As a part of an amnesty regulation handed by parliament every week earlier, Sonko and his alternative candidate Faye had been released from prison on March 14 to rapturous celebrations by their supporters within the streets of Dakar.
On the next day, a closing petition from Wade’s camp looking for to ban the poll on the grounds that it will happen too quickly was rejected by the Supreme Courtroom, thus eradicating the final potential impediment to the presidential election on Sunday.
This text is a translation of the unique in French.