In an address to the nation on Saturday 3 February 2024, the Senegalese President, Mr Macky Sall announced the postponement of the nation’s elections which was scheduled to take place on 25 February 2024. This announcement came as a shock to many observers as this was totally unexpected. The president however reiterated that he will not be seeking reelection this time round.
The reasons given by the president for this unprecedented action is that there has been a lot of haggling between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Council over who have the mandate to decide who takes part in the elections and who does not. He said that given that some candidates have been discovered to have dual nationalities, and that some were disqualified, this could hurt the credibility of the elections.
The opposition has however cried foul with some of them calling it a coup d’etat and that they will not accept the postponement. In fact, some have already called for a protest calling the population to come out and reject this decision. Many see it as a ploy for the president to continue to hold on to power for as long has he can.
Some other civil society groups including some Islamic religious groups have advised against postponing the elections as this can cause chaos in a country whose democracy has been somewhat fragile in the past few years. This could be a harbinger of a crisis which will tarnish the good name the country has so far made for itself. ECOWAS has also expressed concern over the postponement.
Many observers have said that the president has simply realised that his anointed candidate, Mr Amadou Ba has no chance of winning the elections and that is why he is employing these political gymnastics to find a way of turning the tables. The peace and security of the nation will be put in jeopardy if these elections are not held as scheduled, they say.
According to some analysts, the action of the president is not constitutional as the constitution states that no significant changes can be made to the electoral laws when there is less than six months to go to the polls. How the opposition will react and what the results of that would be is yet to be seen.
It is however clear that instability in Senegal will be devastating for the region which is already marred by the numerous military takeovers and civil strife here and there. The good people of Senegal are called upon to exercise maximum restraint and utilize dialogue to resolve the issue rather than falling into violence.
