Senegalese deputies examine on Monday in an explosive climate a controversial bill on the postponement of the presidential election announced by the head of state Macky Sall, the day after clashes between opponents and the police in Dakar.
The debate promises to be heated on this text, which would postpone the vote for a maximum of six months and whose approval, which requires a three-fifths majority of the 165 deputies, is not certain.
The vote is scheduled for late morning.
Macky Sall announced on Saturday, a few hours before the opening of the electoral campaign, that he had signed a decree postponing the presidential election which was to take place on February 25.
This is the first time since 1963 that a presidential election by direct universal suffrage has been postponed in Senegal, a country which has never experienced a coup d'état, a rarity on the continent.
Macky Sall's announcement sparked an outcry and raised fears of an outbreak of fever in a country known to be an island of stability in West Africa, but which has gone through various episodes of deadly unrest since 2021. Clashes broke out on Sunday in the capital Dakar between security forces and demonstrators mobilized at the opposition's call against the decision of the head of state.
The police made numerous arrests, according to opponents, and dispersed the demonstrators using tear gas grenades.
The President of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, on Monday called on the Senegalese to resolve their “political dispute through consultation, understanding and dialogue”, and asked the authorities to “organize as soon as possible the elections, in transparency, peace and national harmony”, Monday morning on the social network X.
Several candidates mobilized
The postponement of the vote was announced against a backdrop of conflict between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Council, which validated twenty candidacies in January, a record, but rejected several dozen others.
Two opposition leaders were excluded: Ousmane Sonko, in prison since July, and Karim Wade, minister and son of ex-president Abdoulaye Wade (2000-2012).
Macky Wade questioned the integrity of two constitutional judges and called for the election to be postponed.
On his initiative, the Assembly approved last week the creation of a commission of inquiry into the conditions of validation of candidacies.
And against all expectations, deputies from the presidential camp supported the approach.
This support also fueled suspicion of a government plan to postpone the presidential election and avoid a defeat.
The candidate of the presidential camp, Prime Minister Amadou Bâ, is contested within his own ranks and faces dissidents.
On the contrary, the anti-system Bassirou Diomaye Faye, whose candidacy was validated by the Constitutional Council although he has been imprisoned since 2023, has established himself in recent weeks as a credible candidate for victory, a nightmare scenario for the presidential camp.
While the deputies met on Monday, an opposition deputy, Ayib Daffé, assured on social networks that parliamentarians from the presidential camp had proposed, during a preparatory meeting for the session, to extend the mandate by one year of the outgoing president.
The postponement of the presidential election is rejected by several opposition candidates, who demonstrated on Sunday in Dakar against the measure.
The police made numerous arrests, according to opponents, and dispersed the demonstrators using tear gas grenades.
Opponent and former Prime Minister Aminata Touré, another fierce opponent of the postponement, was arrested during one of the rallies, opposition MP Guy Marius Sagna told AFP.
According to the electoral code, a decree setting the date of a new presidential election must be published no later than 80 days before the election.
President Macky Sall, elected in 2012 for five years then re-elected in 2019 for seven years and who is not a candidate this time, risks still being in his post beyond the end of his mandate on April 2 .