The first round of the presidential election will be held on March 24

While Macky Saul’s mandate is set to expire on April 2, Senegalese will be called to the polls on March 24.

The date is finally known. The first round will take place on March 24, the Senegalese presidential spokesman announced, following the Constitutional Council’s decision to hold presidential elections before the end of Mackie Sale’s mandate on April 2.

“The President of the Republic informed the Council of Ministers to set the date of the presidential election on Sunday, March 24, 2024,” said a press release sent by the spokesperson of the Presidency.

However, with the Constitutional Council setting the first round for March 31, some confusion persists over the exact date.

The list of candidates is not revised

The announcement followed the publication of a decision by the Constitutional Council which ruled that presidential elections should be held before 2 April, rejecting the proposed date of 2 June.

“Fixing the date of the election outside the term of the mandate of the President of the Republic is against the constitution,” the decision of Tuesday’s “Sage” and authenticated by AFP.

The Constitutional Council also rejected another recommendation made to President Sal and declared that the list of 19 candidates already approved by the body should not be revised.

The Senegalese presidency took note of this sudden acceleration of the calendar by announcing in the evening that Prime Minister Amadou Bane had been “released” from his post to lead the campaign. He has been replaced by Home Minister Siddiqui Kaba, a spokesman said.

The Constitutional Council was asked for an opinion by President Sale from Monday. The head of state submitted the recommendations as a result of a “national dialogue” he called last week to try to get out of the crisis caused by the postponement of the presidential election, one of the most serious in recent decades.

President Salle on February 3 decreed the postponement of elections scheduled for February 25, shocking the country presented as the most stable in West Africa, which has been rocked by a power struggle.

A “national dialogue” was one of President Mackie Sale’s responses to the crisis.

The second was a bill on amnesty for acts linked to political violence in recent years, a text that has been widely criticized even though it is believed to ease tensions.