SENEGAL: Participants in national dialogue propose June 2 as presidential election date

Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Abdou Kogne SALL
Published on 2024-02-27 17:57:27

Dakar, 27 Feb (APS) – Participants in the national dialogue have proposed that the head of state issue a decree convening the electoral body on 2 June for the holding of the presidential election initially scheduled for 25 February, several members of the commission in charge of reflecting on the matter said on Tuesday.

“The commission on the date and management of the transition, with almost unanimous agreement among its members, decided to choose the date of 2 June. It remains to be seen by what mechanism the question of the participation of candidates will have to be resolved,” confirmed Babacar Gaye, one of its members, to APS.

The head of “Suxali” (renaissance), a political movement born out of the Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS), also mentioned that the 19 candidates already approved by the Constitutional Council must participate in the election.

“It remains to be seen how to possibly include the other candidates who were unjustly excluded,” he added.

The President of the parliamentary group Freedom and Democracy, Mamadou Lamine Thiam, on the other hand, stated that the management of the period after 2 April was essential.

Warning against the possibility of an institutional vacuum linked to the announced departure of Macky Sall from power on 2 April, Mr. Thiam supported the proposal that the current head of state could manage the transition period until the installation of his successor.

The commissions set up within the framework of the national dialogue, which opened on Monday in the presence of the head of state, worked behind closed doors on a proposed date for the holding of the presidential election and the ways and means to determine the process to implement after 2 April, which coincides with the end of the current head of state’s term.

The work of the commission in charge of reflecting on the date of the next presidential election was led by the Minister of the Interior, Sidiki Kaba.

Another commission, led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ismaila Madior Fall, standing in for the Minister of Justice, reflected on the modalities through which the electoral process would continue after 2 April.

Religious leaders, representatives of trade unions and civil society organizations, and candidates disqualified from the presidential election responded to the President’s call to dialogue in order to allow the country to find ways to resolve the political crisis it has been going through since the announcement of the postponement of the presidential election from 25 February 2024.

Officials from the Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS), the political party behind the accusations against certain members of the Constitutional Council who carried out the scrutiny of the candidacy of presidential candidates, participated in the meeting.

The accusations from the PDS were made after the candidacy file of the leader of this party, Karim Wade, was declared inadmissible due to his dual Senegalese and French nationality, the son of former President Abdoulaye Wade.

Prime Minister Amadou Ba, candidate of the Benno Bokk Yaakaar coalition (majority), disqualified candidates, and several other political actors also attended the consultations at the Diamniadio Conference Center.

Sixteen of the nineteen candidates approved by the Constitutional Council have decided not to participate in this meeting, as well as several groups claiming to be from civil society. This decision is one of the manifestations of the political crisis that the country is going through since the announcement of the postponement of the presidential election, which was supposed to lead to the choice of a successor to President Macky Sall, in power since 2012.

Read the original article(French) on Agence de Presse Senegalaise