The first clashes erupted in Dakar after calls for protests

Hundreds of people protesting the postponement of the presidential election were dispersed by police with tear gas before pelting them with stones.

She rejected outgoing president Mackie Sale’s announcement. In Senegal, the opposition called for demonstrations on Sunday 4 February against the Senegalese leader’s decision to indefinitely postpone presidential elections scheduled for 25 February. The postponement caused outrage, as well as intense concern abroad.

Men and women of all ages, waving Senegalese flags or wearing national football team jerseys, converged on a roundabout on one of the capital’s main roads in the early afternoon. A large number of deployed tribes opened heavy fire along with tear gas to disperse them.

Police then entered nearby areas on foot or in pickup trucks to chase the fleeing demonstrators. They then suffered numerous stone peltings. Youths chant “Mackey cell dictator!” Also undertook to set up road blocks with makeshift means.

Campaign despite the postponement?

Security forces fired tear gas at scores of Khalifa Sal’s supporters, who gathered near his candidate’s headquarters. Some women felt uncomfortable due to the effects of the gas.

Opponent and former prime minister Aminata Toure, another staunch opponent of the postponement, was arrested during a rally, according to opposition MP Guy Marius Sagna. One of the presidential candidates, Dauda Nadiaye, posted a message on Facebook in which he claimed that “cruelty” by the police and reports that he had some accomplices “arrest”.

Mackie Sale announced on Saturday the cancellation of the decree setting the presidential election for February 25, just hours before the official start of the campaign. This is the first time since 1963 that a presidential election by direct universal suffrage has been postponed in Senegal. Several opposition candidates announced to the press their decision to ignore President Saal’s decision and hold the start of their campaigns on Sunday.