The postponement of Senegal's presidential election opens a “interval of uncertainty”, the European Union mentioned, and the USA referred to as for a fast new date without cost polls forward of opposition demonstrations within the capital , Dakar, which have been dispersed by the police.
“The European Union … calls on all actors to work … for the staging of a clear, inclusive and credible election as quickly as doable,” EU spokesperson Nabila Massrali mentioned in a press release Sunday.
On Saturday, the president of Senegal, Macky Sall, indefinitely postponed the elections scheduled for February 25.
In a televised deal with to the nation, Sall introduced that he had canceled the related electoral regulation, citing a dispute over the checklist of candidates.
He mentioned he signed a decree abolishing a measure of November 2023 that had established the date of the unique election, however didn’t give a brand new date.
Final month, Senegal's Constitutional Council excluded some distinguished members of the opposition from the checklist of candidates.
France, the previous colonial energy within the nation, referred to as for a vote “as quickly as doable”, saying Senegal should finish the “uncertainty”.
“We name on the authorities to finish the uncertainty concerning the electoral calendar in order that the vote will be held as quickly as doable, beneath the principles of Senegalese democracy,” the French International Ministry mentioned in a press release .
Opposition presidential candidates have mentioned they’re launching their campaigns in defiance of the postponement.
Senegal is historically seen as a uncommon instance of democratic stability in West Africa, which has been hit by a sequence of coups in recent times, together with in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
Tear fuel fired at protesters
On Sunday, police fired tear fuel to disperse opposition supporters in Dakar, within the first clashes since Sall's announcement, AFP information company reported.
Women and men waving Senegalese flags or sporting the jersey of the nationwide soccer group had converged on a roundabout in one of many major streets of the capital on the name of a variety of candidates opposition
Police then chased the fleeing protesters into surrounding neighborhoods, with some within the crowd throwing rocks on the officers.
Reporting from the outskirts of Dakar, Al Jazeera's Nicolas Haque mentioned all 19 opposition candidates had requested their supporters to assemble within the space.
“There’s a sense that the safety forces don’t want any assembly. However for members of the opposition, till the decree [cancelling the elections] it’s printed… then [it] it's misplaced,” Haque mentioned.
“A number of the opposition figures I spoke with mentioned it's a ploy for him to cling to energy, others described it as a constitutional coup.
“A motorcyclist… shouted: 'We're going to burn all the things.'” From each protester we spoke to, they really feel offended about that call; they really feel robbed of their skill to specific themselves on this election canceled by Sall.
About 200 protesters blocked site visitors on a major highway in Dakar with a makeshift barricade of burning tires, Reuters information company reported.
Additional protests are anticipated exterior parliament on Monday.
“Inclusive and credible elections”
The US State Division famous Senegal's “sturdy custom of democracy and peaceable transitions of energy” and urged “all members in [the] the electoral course of to interact peacefully to rapidly set up a brand new date and situations for a well timed, free and truthful election.”
Senegalese politicians should “prioritize dialogue and collaboration for clear, inclusive and credible elections,” the Financial Group of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc mentioned in a press release that referred to as on authorities to “speed up the varied processes to ascertain a brand new date for the elections.”.
Opponents suspect that the president's camp fears the defeat of his anointed successor, Prime Minister Amadou Ba.
Senegal can’t “take pleasure in a brand new disaster” after lethal political violence in March 2021 and June 2023, Sall mentioned on Saturday as he introduced a “nationwide dialogue” to arrange “a free, clear and inclusive election”.
The nation's electoral code says that not less than 80 days should cross between the announcement of a brand new presidential vote and the day of the vote – theoretically placing the brand new date as early as doable on the finish of April on the earliest.
Sall's presidential time period will finish on April 2.
Analysts say the disaster is testing one in all Africa's most steady democracies at a time when the area is battling a latest surge in coups.
Senegal has been embroiled in political tensions over lethal clashes involving opposition supporters and the disqualification of two opposition leaders forward of the essential vote.
