- Senegalese president Macky Sall postponed the presidential elections, which were supposed to take place on February 25.
- Speaking in a televised address to the nation on Saturday, the president announced he had cancelled the relevant electoral law, citing a dispute over the candidate list.
- Sall claimed to have issued an order nullifying the November 2023 law that had established the first election date.
I will initiate an open national dialogue to bring together the conditions for a free, transparent and inclusive election in a peaceful and reconciled Senegal,” he said, without giving a new date.
- The declaration was made while legislators were looking into two judges of the Constitutional Council whose election-related integrity has come under scrutiny.
- Certain opposition members were removed from the list of candidates by election authorities last month. Prior to the voting, the opposition Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), whose candidate Karim Wade was one of those left out, officially requested a postponement of the ballot. But, a different party declared that postponing the vote would amount to “an institutional coup d’etat.”
- The constitutional council’s decision to exclude prominent contenders has fuelled growing discontent about the election process, with excluded candidates saying the rules for candidacy were not applied fairly – which the authorities have denied.
