Legislative deputies begin debating the text postponing the election

In a tense atmosphere, Senegalese deputies began to discuss the text to postpone the presidential election for several months on Monday February 5, an AFP journalist noted. The In a report adopted a day earlier by the Preparatory Commission, based on the content of this text distributed at the meeting, it is proposed to postpone the presidential election scheduled for February 25 until February 2025, by six months or even a year.

The purpose of postponement will be “to avoid institutional instability and serious political unrest”And to lead “A“Complete restart of election process”The report says. The commission members recommended an adjournment till February 2025 to consider elections “Country Realities”

Such as difficulties arising from campaigning in the middle of the rainy season (July to November) or potential clashes with major religious festivals, the report says. Follow our live stream.

Assembly polls with uncertain outcome. The bill implementing the declaration of Senegal’s head of state would postpone the election date for a maximum of six months. Approval, which requires a three-fifths majority of the 165 deputies, is not granted. Tribes intervened to disperse a gathering in front of the National Assembly in Dakar. AFP reporters noted that mobile data internet was down in several districts of the capital on Monday.

Judged by President Mackie Sale. On Saturday, a few hours before the planned start of the election campaign, Mackie Sale announced the signing of a decree postponing the February 25 presidential election. It is the first time since 1963 that a presidential election has been postponed by direct universal suffrage in Senegal, a country that has never experienced a coup, a rarity on the continent.

The rejection of certain applications was contested. The disruption follows a conflict between the National Assembly and the Senegalese Constitutional Council. In January, he approved twenty presidential candidates, but rejected two opposition figures: Osmane Sonko, imprisoned since July, and Karim Wade, the former president’s son and minister. The latter questioned the integrity of the two constitutional judges, and deputies approved the creation of a commission of inquiry with votes from part of the presidential camp.

A country rocked by deadly unrest since 2021. Mackie Saul’s announcement caused an uproar and raised fears of a fever outbreak in a country known as an island of stability in West Africa, but which has gone through various episodes of deadly unrest since 2021.