DAKAR: Fifteen candidates in Senegal’s delayed presidential vote have accused President Macky Sall of “ill will” and said they will take action to ensure a new election date is swiftly established.
The announcement came as the civil society collective Aar Sunu Election said it had arranged a new rally for Saturday. The collective is demanding for an election to be held before April 2, when Sall’s tenure officially runs out, AFP reported.
It says the election — originally slated for February 25 — must be held by March 3 at the latest.
The fifteen candidates said in a joint statement released late on Tuesday that an inexplicable slowness has been noted. Nothing has been done despite developments over the past week.
The statement added that everything is moving at the pace of President Macky Sall’s ill will.
The fifteen signatories include former Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall and incarcerated opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye. Faye is the second-in-command of anti-establishment firebrand Ousmane Sonko, who is also in jail.
Senegal’s Worst Political Crisis in Decades
Sall’s last-minute delay to Sunday’s election plunged the traditionally stable West African country into its worst political crisis in decades and sparked unrest during which three people were killed.
The opposition criticized Sall’s move as a “constitutional coup”, stating his party feared defeat in the election for its candidate, Prime Minister Amadou Ba.
The incumbent prime minister has repeatedly said he will not seek re-election.
Last week, Senegal’s Constitutional Council overturned the election delay, which would have kept Sall in office until his successor was elected.
The Council said it was impossible to hold the presidential vote on the initially scheduled date but invited the competent authorities to organize it as soon as possible. However, it left open the question of when the vote would be held.
The fifteen candidates said the electoral process should have been restarted and accused Sall of neglecting his duty to hold the vote.
They said that everything suggests that Macky Sall cannot come to terms with the fact that his attempt to sabotage the presidential vote was thwarted by the Constitutional Council and the people.
