Senegal Court Overturns President's Decree To Postpone Presidential Election

Senegal's Constitutional Council overturned the decree signed by President Macky Sall that postponed the election for February 25 and rescheduled it for December 15, ruling that the moves were unconstitutional.

According to the ruling, the National Assembly's move on February 5 to reschedule the vote for December 15 was "contrary to the constitution."

Senegal Court Overturns Delay of Presidential Vote

(Photo : SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
Senegal's President Macky Sall gestures as he addresses media after talks during a visit in Kyiv on June 16, 2023. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on June 16, 2023 called on Ukraine and Russia to de-escalate their conflict, as he arrived in the war-torn country on a mission to broker peace.

Opposition presidential candidates and lawmakers had filed several legal challenges to last week's parliamentary bill that extended Sall's term last week in what critics claimed amounted to an "institutional coup."

Sall, who has been in power since 2012, caused a stir on February 3 when he announced that the elections would not go forward due to disagreements over the disqualification of possible candidates and concern about a repeat of the unrest between 2021 and 2023. He did not immediately make any public comments in response to the ruling.

Parliament supported Sall's decision to postpone the election until December 15, but only after security forces stormed the building and removed some opposition MPs who opposed the bill.

The election delay in one of the most stable democracies in West Africa led to violent protests that killed three people and arrested dozens.

Senegal's major international allies also denounced the decision and urged the government to hold the vote as soon as possible, fearing violent unrest.

On Friday, opposition and civil society organizations announced new calls for protests.

Violence Spreads in Senegal Amid Election Delay

According to Al Jazeera, hundreds of protesters against the postponement of the presidential election that was supposed to take place on February 25 clashed with the security forces.

Al Jazeera's Nicholas Haque reported from Dakar on Friday, saying that the police used tear gas on protesters to stop them from meeting and gathering to protest over the delay of the presidential election.

Haque said that there have been running battles between protesters and security forces, and most of the demonstrators are 18-year-olds. He added that they were barely 12 when Sall came to power and noted they wanted to have a say in this election.

According to Reuters, some protesters in the capital on Friday were seen waving Senegalese flags while others shouted slogans like "Macky Sall is a dictator."

Teachers at Dakar's Blaise Diagne High School responded to the call for protest, and hundreds of students left class in the middle of the morning. Assane Sene, a geography and history instructor, said this was only the beginning of the conflict.

Sene told the AFP news agency that if the government is stubborn, they must try different approaches.

Furthermore, some critics also accused Sall of wanting to hold onto power, while the West African bloc and foreign powers have criticized the move as a breach of Senegal's democratic tradition.