Senegalese citizens were to go to the polls on February 25 to choose their 5th President of the Republic, this will not be the case. While everything was in place for the start of the electoral campaign, the President of the Republic, Macky Sall, during an address to the Nation this Saturday, decided to stop the electoral process by signing “decree no. 2024-106 of February 3, 2024 repealing decree no. 2023-2283 of November 29, 2023 convening the electoral body. Macky Sall justifies his action by a crisis between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Council.

This is an unprecedented situation. For the first time in the political history of the country, the Presidential election will not be held on the due date. While the electoral campaign was to start this Sunday and the Presidential election was to be held on February 25, Macky Sall made a decision which stopped the entire electoral process. Indeed, in an address to the Nation, the Head of State signed “decree n°2024-106 of February 3, 2024 repealing decree n°2023-2283 of November 29, 2023 convening the electoral body”. Macky Sall, during his speech, justified his attitude. He says: “As the presidential election of February 25, 2024 looms, our country has been confronted, for several days, with a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Council, in open conflict against the backdrop of an alleged case of corruption of judges.” 

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Continuing his remarks, Mr. Sall maintains that “Thus, the Assembly, based on its prerogatives, decided, by Resolution dated January 31, 2024, to set up a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry to shed light on the process of verifying candidacies and on any other facts relating to the election.” In the same dynamic, he recalls that the Constitutional Council, in “its press release of January 29, 2024 signed by all its members, the Constitutional Council refuted the allegations made against it, while taking into account the seriousness of the accusations, and ensuring that all light be shed in accordance with the constitutional and legal procedures governing relations between institutions, including the separation of powers and the status of its members.” According to Macky Sall To this sufficiently serious and confusing situation was added the controversy over a candidate whose dual nationality was discovered after the publication of the final list of candidates by the Constitutional Council” which, he precises “constitutes a violation of article 28 of the Constitution which provides that “any candidate for the Presidency of the Republic must be exclusively of Senegalese nationality”. Analysing the situation, the President of the Republic, who’s mandate normally ends on April 2, believes that “these murky conditions could seriously harm the credibility of the election by creating the seeds of pre- and post-electoral litigation.”

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Still in the position of justifying his decision, Mr. Sall points out that the country, which “ still bears the scars of the violent demonstrations of March 2021 and June 2023, our country cannot afford a new crisis.” Furthermore, he stated that in his “capacity as President of the Republic, guarantor of the regular functioning of the Institutions, and respectful of the separation of powers,” he could not “intervene in the conflict between the legislative power and the judicial power.” And to precise “Faced with this situation, the National Assembly, acting by virtue of its prerogatives, referred to me, for opinion, in accordance with its internal regulations, a proposed constitutional law under emergency procedure derogating from the provisions of article 31 of the Constitution.”

“I took note of this referral after consulting the President of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister, the President of the High Council of Local Authorities, the President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council and the President of the Constitutional Council.” If the postponement of the election was acted upon by this decision, the president of the Republic did not give a date for the holding of the election. Macky Sall however announced “an open national dialogue, in order to create the conditions for a free, transparent and inclusive election in a peaceful and reconciled Senegal.”

At the same time, he reiterated his commitment not to run in the presidential election.

By Dieynaba KANE / dkane@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH