Two days after parliament adopted the postponement of the presidential election until December 15, 2024, Senegal’s political class is increasingly divided between supporters and opponents of the postponement. Divisions which are also found in the camp of power. After the Secretary General to the government resigned on Saturday evening, it is his turn to show his displeasure.
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With our correspondent in Dakar, Leigh-Lisa Westerhoff
This was done through the publication of his resignation letter addressed to him Mackey Cell Kay Ava Marie Cole Sec, Minister of State and Chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, disagreed with the President. “ The Senegal Its republican calendar deserves to be respected », writes the former health minister in this letter, even though “ Our election process is yet to be completed “
A way of questioning the argument used by President Mackie Saul is that there is a serious institutional crisis due to too much dysfunction in the electoral process and hence the postponement of elections.
Also readSenegal: Assembly votes to postpone presidential election after forced evacuation of opposition deputies
Another disaffected voice was heard: that of Zahra Ian Thiam, director of the Senegalese export promotion agency, who nonetheless ran alongside the president of the republic, Macky Selene, during his election in 2012. On Tuesday, she broke camp. ” I believe that the act passed today (postponing the presidential election, editor’s note)“east” A clear violation of our basic charter ” ” Such a waste! », she writes again Facebook.
Finally, on Monday evening, a member of parliament voted against the bill to postpone the presidential election. This is the member of parliament of the ruling coalition, Benno Bok Yakar. There are plenty of signs that postponing the vote is far from unanimous and there’s even a risk of splitting the majority camp a little more.
On the other hand, others congratulated the postponement of the vote, such as the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS). For Mamadou Lamin Thiam, president of the PDS parliamentary group, it was not possible to do otherwise given the numerous irregularities that marked the candidate selection process. According to him, we should go further and establish a new Constitutional Council.
These failures were likely to compromise the integrity, democracy and inclusiveness of elections which, if sustained, would have led the country to chaos.
Mamadou Lamin Thiam, president of the PDS parliamentary group
ECOWAS raises its voice
The ECOWAS Commission published a new press release on Tuesday evening in which it advises and encourages against any actions that may go against the constitution of the country “ Immediate steps required to restore the election calendar “
The tone of this second press release is judged by a good number of observers, including within the organization, to be significantly stronger and sharper than the first. It must be said that between February 3, the date of the first missive, and this Tuesday, the West African community had yet to witness the spectacle of parliamentarians being vigorously chased from the National Assembly by the police.
What Abuja did not yet understand was that the majority vote of the President and his contingent of deputies would allow Mackie Sale to extend his mandate until December 15, 2024.
In its new press release, the Commission nevertheless tries to accommodate the sensitivities of the two camps opposed to Dakar by offering to support Senegal in maintaining its democratic tradition. But a source at the commission’s headquarters suggested it could ill-afford another failure after the separatist snub to the alliance of Sahel states. This Thursday, the ECOWAS Foreign Ministers meeting was initially to look at the cases of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Senegal has just been added to the program
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