as deputies consider the controversial postponement of the presidential election, internet access cut in Dakar

In an explosive climate, they are examining on Monday a bill which would ratify the postponement of the vote announced by the head of state Macky Sall on Saturday.

The debate promises to be heated. The day after clashes between opponents and the police in Dakar, Senegalese deputies examine, Monday February 5, a controversial bill on the postponement of the presidential election, announced Saturday by the head of state Macky Sall. This text would postpone the date of the election by a maximum of six months. Its approval, which requires a three-fifths majority of the 165 deputies, is not certain. The vote is scheduled for late morning.

In this context of political crisis, access to mobile internet data was cut Monday morning in Dakar, AFP journalists noted.

On Saturday, a few hours before the planned opening of the electoral campaign, Macky Sall declared having 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.

Several dozen applications rejected

This announcement caused an outcry and raised fears of an attack 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.

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).

The latter questioned the integrity of two constitutional judges, demanding the postponement of the election. The Assembly approved the creation of a commission of inquiry into the conditions for validating candidacies, with the unexpected support of deputies from the presidential camp.

The president of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, on Monday called on the Senegalese to settle their “political dispute through consultation, understanding and dialogue”.