The Constitutional Council has overturned both decree no. 2024-106 of 3 February 2024 repealing the decree convening the electoral corps for the presidential election of 25 February 2024 and law no. 4/2024 adopted by the National Assembly at its meeting of 5 February 2024 derogating from the provisions of article 31 of the Constitution.

Under our Constitution, « the decisions of the Constitutional Council are not subject to appeal. They are binding on the public authorities and on all administrative and jurisdictional authorities ». I cannot indulge in collective hysteria or to join in the chorus of those who turn an ordinary decision into an event. Senegal is a democracy, still to be perfected, but a far cry from the tropical dictatorships of the continent. In my view, this was a normal day in our great country. The Executive issued a regulation and the parliamentarians passed a law, both of which were deemed to have no legal basis by the « Wise Men ».

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The Head of State can appoint seven judges to overturn his decision on a matter of vital importance to the country’s present and future. These judges are then free to go about their business without fearing for their lives or those of their families. A major democracy is built over time through the actions of the three powers that are its linchpins. The rule of law is achieved through the sedimentation over time of legal arbitrations and decisions by the legal and legitimate authorities that reinforce freedom and civil peace.

This concert of ecstasies among politicians, intellectuals and the general public is indicative of a public service that is not up to the challenge of our democracy. You have to be unambitious to go around the national and international media singing the praises of the judge, who, according to him, speaks the Law, and whose decision we must all abide by.

In the recent past, judges Sabassy Faye and Ousmane Racine Thione ruled against the State in favour of a political opponent. It is by trivialising judicial decisions that we build a serene public space. This is how we arrive at what my friend Yoro Dia often maintains; for him, Senegal must move from the « era of fury » to that of the « reign of opinion ».

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On the contrary, we are in the era of a democracy of chattering without consistency from a body politic many of whose players are unworthy of being the legatees of the legacy of our founding fathers. How else can we understand how Aminata Touré – given her aridity and restlessness, I still wonder how she managed to get to the position of head of government – could even dare to be a candidate for the supreme magistracy. She is certainly not the only one to be more of an object of curiosity than a serious political player. In January 2024, the former Prime Minister accused the Constitutional Council of having « stolen » her sponsorships.  In February, without any transition whatsoever, she welcomed the decision of those whom she had refused to call « Wise Men » a few weeks earlier. This is the Senegal of today, with individuals of little virtue swarming into the political arena and driving others who are far more responsible out of office. On this subject, Pierre Mauroy has been quoted as saying: « When the disgusted leave, only the disgusting remain ».

We cannot build a solid democracy without democrats, just as it is impossible to build a Republic without republicans. Judges are reviled when they take a decision that does not go in the direction desired by the players on one side; very often the same people who have been bottle-fed with hatred of republican institutions, insults and outrage.

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When I read the decision of the « Wise Men », I thought of the manifestos of the 102, 49, 117 and then 104 intellectuals who proclaimed that we were no longer a State governed by the rule of law. Not to mention the solitary escapes of intellectuals and politicians who passed the word around to manipulate our fellow citizens and smear our country abroad.                                                                The same people who welcomed the Constitutional Council’s decision insulted and abused its members, crying « conspiracy », when they invalidated the candidacy of their champion who had several convictions against him. On 8 June 2022, he himself accused them of « high treason » and went on to call them « lawbreakers ». Our petitioners, so quick to defend the law, had heard nothing then…

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« Everything that is excessive is insignificant. Petitions signed by the same people and published on the same platform – only the titles change – at the end are just drivel, and it’s not very serious any more. Politics is not a Sunday morning jog or an intermittent activity. Politics is the very essence of society.                                                                                                                     Senegal is a democracy, albeit a work in progress. The Republic has laws to resolve our differences. It’s irresponsible to ask children to take to the streets when you’ve lodged an appeal – and won it in the end. But what can we expect from people who for two years formulated or supported insults and threats against magistrates?

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We remain on the same line of visceral attachment to the Republic. You, who insulted the « Wise Men » in January, have come to congratulate them in February. We Republicans have remained constant and on the same line, because we speak only in the name of our conscience and our attachment to democracy and the Republic. What about the children who lost their lives because of adults of little faith? You don’t come to politics to die. Sacrificial invocations, the terms « martyr » and « glory to the dead » are dangerous and belong to a fundamentalist and extremist imagination. You can’t get used to children dying and then give them a post on Facebook. It is staggeringly indecent.

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As for what happens next, the Senegalese government was right to take note of the judges’ decision and to decide to implement it. There is no alternative to the law. Let’s work together, drawing on the Senegalese genius, to find a way out of the impasse.

One last thing: those who demand that the President of the Republic « stop interfering in the judicial process » are the same ones who are applauding the release of hundreds of people on the basis of individual decisions, in defiance of ongoing proceedings. When people are released without notice, sometimes on very heavy charges, I curiously do not see the principled petitioners raising their voices, signing a petition and denouncing a « forfeit », a « bloody dictatorship » and calling on the « people » to « resist ». Basically, there is only one virtue in all this: to see the masks come off so that we can identify who is who.

By Hamidou ANNE / hamidou.anne@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH