Thousands of people protest in several cities in Senegal against the postponement of the elections

Thousands of people took to the streets of Dakar and other cities in Senegal this Friday to protest the postponement of the elections decreed last Saturday by President Macky Sall and subsequently endorsed and set in 10 months by Parliament.

However, the demonstrations have been met with a robust police response, which has attempted to prevent any gathering with tear gas and in the capital has prevented protesters from accessing the Plaza de la Nación.

Groups of young people have set tires, logs and wooden furniture on fire, causing numerous fires at crossroads and streets in many neighborhoods of Dakar, which in the afternoon has been enveloped in dense smoke.

Railway traffic has had to be suspended due to the unrest.

“Our president is a dictator,” shouts Moussa, a young man crouching in a doorway in the Colobane neighborhood.

In front, a dozen police officers look at him with a threatening gesture.

Suddenly, the sound of an explosion behind the agents anticipates the flight of a tear gas grenade that falls at his feet.

“See, didn't I tell you?

They don't even let us say what we think,” he adds.

A few meters away, a journalist from the

Seneweb

portal is violently detained while trying to film the incidents.

In most cities in the country, such as Saint Louis, Diourbel, Kaolack, Mbour or Pikine, similar scenes are experienced.

These protests, called through social networks, are the first test of strength of the growing rejection of Sall's decision, which has united against him dozens of unions, social groups and opposition parties and candidates, who do not hesitate to qualify the measure as a “constitutional coup d'état” in the midst of a climate of tension and uncertainty.

For days, the streets of Dakar were practically taken over by the forces of order, who have responded with great forcefulness to any attempt at protest.

Many arteries of the capital have been interrupted to traffic due to the placement of barricades.

President Sall, who is not running for election, justified his decision to delay the elections due to the open conflict between Parliament and the Constitutional Court after this body approved the list of candidates for the elections on January 20.

The exclusion of the opponent Karim Wade caused his political group, the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), to propose the creation of a commission to investigate the alleged irregularities within the Constitutional Court, an initiative that went ahead with the votes of the government majority. .

In the background, the fear of a defeat of the candidate endorsed by Sall, the technocrat Amadou Ba, in the face of the emergency and the strong popular support of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, an candidate backed by the condemned opponent Ousmane Sonko and considered a “radical” by government.

The president's risky decision is also taking its toll on him in his own environment.

Public criticism from former collaborators and friends, such as the singer Youssou Ndour, has been joined by a series of resignations ranging from Abdoulatif Coulibaly, Secretary General of the Government, to Minister of State Eva Marie Coll Seck, Sall's long-time collaborator.

New protests are called for next week, joined by the League of Imams and Preachers of Senegal and one of the most powerful high school teachers unions in the country, which has called for a strike starting Tuesday.

Protesters against the decision to postpone Senegal's elections, on a street in Dakar, on February 9.

ZOHRA BENSEMRA (REUTERS)

At the international level, attention is drawn to the forceful reaction of the United States Department of State, which last Tuesday assured in a statement that the electoral delay "goes against the strong democratic tradition of Senegal," highlighting that the vote in the Parliament, after the police intervention to expel members of the opposition, “cannot be considered legitimate given the conditions under which it took place,” and urged the Government to restore the established electoral calendar.

The Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also called for the February 25 date to be maintained.

The high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, expressed this Friday in a statement his concern about the electoral delay, which "threatens to tarnish Senegal's long democratic tradition and could open a period of great uncertainty."

The head of European diplomacy assured that, in fact, it was already having an impact "on the stability and social cohesion of the country" and called on the authorities to "respect the legitimate aspirations of citizens and all living forces", to guarantee “fundamental freedoms, especially those to demonstrate peacefully and express oneself publicly” and “to organize elections as quickly as possible.”

On the other hand, more than a hundred Senegalese journalists gathered this Friday in front of the Press House in Dakar to protest the withdrawal of license and cut off of the broadcast of the private Walfadjiri television for broadcasting the incidents of recent days.

The Government accuses the channel of “subversive, hateful and dangerous purposes that threaten the security of the State,” explained Moussa Bocar Thiam, Minister of Communication.

Reporters Without Borders assures that this is an “abusive sanction” and “a terrible warning for the media in Senegal.”

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