Hundreds of people gathered in Dakar on Saturday, February 24, to call on President Macky Sall to set a date for the presidential elections. The poll, which was supposed to take place this weekend, has been postponed.
Several hundred people demonstrated in Dakar on Saturday calling on the president to set a date to elect his successor before his term ends on April 2.
President Macky Sall has faced uproar since he postponed the vote that was scheduled for February 25, triggering one of the West African nation’s worst political crises.
The Constitutional Council overturned the delay and called last week for the vote to be held “as soon as possible.”
But Sall appears in no hurry.
He has put off a decision on the date until after he talks to political and social actors on Monday. He said Thursday night that he hoped to reach an agreement by late Tuesday.
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That has left the Senegalese people in the dark as to when they will be able to vote and created a political clamour for the elections to take place soon.
Saturday’s protest saw hundreds answer the call of the F24 opposition grouping to gather on a sandy open space in a popular quarter of the capital.
“We want elections,” protesters chanted, draped in national flags. “Macky Sall dictator.”
In an apparent move to pacify public opinion, Sall has said he would consider provisional releases, pardons, or an amnesty law for opposition figures including Sonko and his deputy Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who is also in jail.
According to Sall, in power since 2012, he delayed the election because of disputes over the disqualification of potential candidates and concerns about a return to unrest seen in 2021 and last year.
Most of the 20 candidates for president and a large civil society collective have announced they will refuse to take part in the talks Sall intends to stage.
The election chaos has plunged the traditionally stable West African country into turmoil and sparked unrest that has left four people dead.
Laurent Lozano, Malick Ba, with AFP
