President Macky Sall on Saturday postponed Senegal’s planned Feb. 25 presidential election, announcing in a televised address to the nation that he had cancelled the relevant electoral law due to electoral disputes he warned could fuel unrest.
With little over three weeks remaining until the election, Senegal is thrust into new constitutional territory that some opposition and civil society organisations fear could cause instability. This is due to the extraordinary decision to postpone the poll to an undisclosed date.
Sall’s move comes after the constitutional council decided in January to omit a few well-known candidates from the electoral list, which stoked opposition to the election process.
In his speech, Sall warned that “these troubled conditions could seriously undermine the credibility of the ballot by sowing the seeds of pre- and post-electoral disputes.”
The Nation reported that, he announced a national conversation to guarantee a free, fair, and transparent election, but he did not announce a new date for voting.