Senegal constitutional body overturns presidential vote delay
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Senegal's Constitutional Council has reversed the decision to postpone this month's presidential election.
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Demonstrators protest President Macky Sall's decision to postpone the Feb. 25 vote, citing an electoral dispute between the parliament and the judiciary regarding some candidacies in Dakar, Senegal, Friday, Feb. 9, 2024. (AP)
Senegal's Constitutional Council reversed on Thursday the decision to postpone this month's presidential election, marking a historic turn that introduces a level of uncertainty for the typically stable West African nation.
President Macky Sall's decision earlier this month to delay the February 25 poll has plunged Senegal into its most severe crisis in decades, leading to widespread outcry and triggering deadly protests.
Before Senegal's Constitutional Council reversed the decision, Senegal suspended mobile internet service on Tuesday ahead of a planned march against the postponement of a presidential election, with rights organizations accusing the government of adopting excessively coercive measures to quell strong opposition to the delay.
Earlier this month, Senegal decided to postpone the presidential elections until December 15 after opposition politicians were forcefully removed from the chambers by security forces for trying to block the voting process on the delay for the elections, initially scheduled for February 25.
According to a document authenticated by a source within the institution, Senegal's Constitutional Council declared that the law passed by parliament to postpone the vote was unconstitutional. The constitutional body also invalidated Sall's February 3 decree, which altered the electoral calendar just three weeks before the scheduled vote.
The Council stated that it was "impossible to organize the presidential election on the initially scheduled date" but urged "the competent authorities to conduct it at the earliest opportunity," adding that the opposition has denounced Sall's decision to postpone the vote as a "constitutional coup", alleging that his party feared defeat at the ballot box.
Opposition: This is a coup
Stating just back in July that he does not intend to seek a third term, Sall said an electoral dispute between the parliament and the judiciary concerning the candidacies was the cause of the delay but opposition leaders and candidates rejected it and said it was a “coup.”
The dispute, said Sall, is over the disqualification and the reported dual-nationality of some in a “sufficiently serious and confusing situation.”
