Senegalese today protested against President Macky Sall’s controversial move to delay this month’s presidential poll to December
Sall’s decision to push back the February 25 vote plunged Senegal into a crisis which has seen three dead amid clashes between protesters and police.
The group, which includes some 40 civil, religious and professional groups, had called for a rally in Dakar on Tuesday.
The United States and the European Union have called on the government to restore the original election timetable.
Sall said he postponed the election because of a dispute between parliament and the Constitutional Council over potential candidates barred from running, and over fears of a return to unrest seen in 2021 and 2023.
Parliament backed Sall’s suspension of the election until December 15, but only after security forces stormed parliament and detained some opposition lawmakers.
The vote paved the way for Sall — whose second term was due to expire in April — to remain in office until his successor is installed, probably in 2025.
Senegal’s opposition has decried the move as a “constitutional coup” and suspects it is part of a plan by the presidential camp to extend Sall’s term in office, despite him reiterating that he would not stand again.
Ex-presidents Abdou Diouf and Abdoulaye Wade — the father of one of the disqualified candidates, Karim Wade — called on Sall to organise the “national dialogue he has announced, without delay
