Senegal is sinking into crisis. The gendarmes intervened to disperse a gathering with tear gas in front of the National Assembly on Monday, February 5, when deputies were to begin debating a proposed constitutional law to postpone the presidential election for six months. In the context of this political crisis, access to mobile internet data was cut Monday morning in Dakar, AFP journalists noted. Follow our live stream.
A decision taken by President Macky Sall. 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.
A vote with an uncertain outcome. This bill 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. This 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.
A country shaken by deadly unrest since 2021. 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.