the Quai d’Orsay calls for elections “as soon as possible”

France called on Senegal on Sunday February 4 to lift the “uncertainties” created by the indefinite postponement of the presidential election announced the day before by President Macky Sall so that the elections can be held “as quickly as possible”.

“We call on the authorities to remove the uncertainties around the electoral calendar so that the elections can be held as soon as possible and in compliance with the rules of Senegalese democracy”, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement. For his part, “the European Union (…) calls on all stakeholders to work, in a peaceful climate, to hold a transparent, inclusive and credible election, as soon as possible and in compliance with the rule of law , in order to preserve the long tradition of stability and democracy in Senegal”, assured the spokesperson for the European Union, Nabila Massrali. A demonstration is to be held on Sunday in Dakar at the call of the opposition, in a context of serious political crisis.

The Senegalese head of state, Macky Sall, announced on Saturday that he had repealed his decree setting the date of the presidential election for February 25. This decision follows the establishment of a parliamentary commission investigating two judges of the Constitutional Council, whose integrity in the electoral process is contested. His statement came a few hours before the opening of the electoral campaign for the vote. Twenty candidates were to compete.