Senegal’s President Macky Sall speaks during a joint press conference with German Chancellor on January 27, 2020 at the Chancellery in Berlin. Senegal’s President Macky Sall said Monday that he would not seek re-election for a third term, ending months of uncertainty over whether he would seek to remain power in the West African nation.
Senegal’s President Macky Sall has said he will leave office when his term comes to an end on 2 April, but tensions remain over an election date.
Deadly protests were sparked by his recent decision to postpone the vote, which was originally set for Sunday, to mid-December.
Mr. Sall stated in a televised interview that political negotiations would now begin on Monday to determine the date of the election.
The opposition’s refusal to participate in the suggested dialogue has dashed hopes of settling the unrest, according to the Summit Post News.
Of the 19 presidential candidates, 16 have declared they will not attend what the president has called a “national dialogue.” Numerous organizations from the civil society have also chosen not to participate in the exercise.
Mr. Sall is under pressure to announce a new date after Senegal’s highest court ruled last week that the poll’s postponement was unlawful. He is currently traveling to Abuja, Nigeria, for an extraordinary summit of the regional bloc Ecowas.
The international community strongly condemned his initial decree to postpone the vote.
Many were afraid that the delay would mean that President Sall would continue to lead the nation indefinitely in an area where military governments and coups are commonplace.
Speaking on Thursday night on national television, Mr. Sall expressed his opinion that there would not be enough time to elect a new president by the time he steps down on April 2. If this was the case, he said, the dialogue forum would determine the appropriate course of action.
As a gesture of goodwill, the president declared that he was ready to free Ousmane Sonko, a well-liked opposition politician, from prison. Last year, his arrest provoked protests across the country.
Following Senegal’s Constitutional Council ruling that the president’s decision to postpone the election was unlawful, dozens of the president’s opponents have already been declared free.
However, the president’s failure to announce a new election date has only confirmed his detractors’ fears that this is just another stalling move.
Senegal’s president, Sall, has led the country twice; upon his election in 2012, he made a vow not to stay longer than necessary.
His nation’s standing as a bulwark of democracy in an increasingly authoritarian region has not yet been restored, despite the televised interview.
