Senegalese gendarmes dispersed a protest rally in front of the National Assembly in Dakar on Monday using tear gas before the opening of a critical and explosive debate on a postponement of the presidential election.
Senegal, renowned as an island of stability in West Africa, has been in the grip of great tensions since President Macky Sall announced on Saturday, a few hours before the opening of the campaign, the postponement of the presidential election scheduled for February 25.
This unprecedented decision since independence, virulently denounced by its detractors as a “constitutional coup d’état”, plunges the country into the unknown and raises fears of a boiling point. It caused an outcry and gave rise to the first repressed gatherings on Sunday and the first arrests.
The Internet for mobile data was cut off at least in several districts of Dakar on Monday, AFP journalists noted.
The government had already suspended access in June 2023, in a context of political crisis. Elsewhere, the measure has become a common means of response to stem mobilization and communication via social networks.
MPs must debate from 11 a.m. (6 a.m. in Quebec) a proposed constitutional law that would postpone the vote for a maximum of six months, during a session anticipated as a crucial moment.
Approval requires a three-fifths majority of the 165 deputies. It is not acquired. The vote is scheduled for today. Adoption or rejection, the situation will remain highly volatile.
The opposition called for demonstrations in front of the National Assembly, placed under the high protection of dozens of gendarmes and police supported by heavy vehicles.
“Macky Sall dictator”
The security forces threw two tear gas grenades to remove a group of a few dozen people who refused to obey their injunction and who retreated further while chanting “Macky Sall dictator”, named after the Senegalese president.
One of the demonstrators, Malick Diouf, 37, does not have a preferred candidate and not even a voter card, but deemed it necessary to come and protest.
“The main thing for me is to say no to this political agenda, this power grab to try to stay in power,” he told AFP.
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.
This precedent arouses concern abroad. The Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United States, the European Union, France, important partners of Senegal, have asked to work on a new date.
The President of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, called on the Senegalese to resolve their “political dispute through consultation, understanding and dialogue”, and asked the authorities to “organize as soon as possible the elections, in transparency, peace and national harmony”.
The crisis makes Senegal fear a new bout of fever like those it experienced in March 2021 and June 2023, which caused dozens of deaths and gave rise to hundreds of arrests. The opposition denounces an authoritarian drift in power.
With the postponement of the presidential election, she suspects a plan to avoid the inevitable defeat according to them of the presidential camp, or even to prolong the Macky Sall presidency, despite the commitment reiterated on Saturday by the latter not to run again.
The candidate of the presidential camp, Prime Minister Amadou Bâ, is contested within his own ranks and faces dissidents.
President Sall cited the serious conflict which broke out between the Constitutional Council and the National Assembly after the final validation by the court of twenty candidacies and the elimination of several dozen others. He alleged the risk of pre- and post-election protests and new clashes as in 2021 and 2023.
The Constitutional Council plays a vital role in proclaiming the results and ruling on disputes.
An opposition deputy, Ayib Daffé, assured on social networks that parliamentarians from the presidential camp had proposed, during a preparatory meeting for Monday’s session, to extend the mandate of the outgoing president by one year.