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Senegal’s highest constitutional body has ruled that President Macky Sall’s decision to postpone this month’s election was unlawful, deepening the constitutional crisis that has shattered the west African country’s image of political stability.
The Constitutional Council declared late on Thursday that Sall’s postponement of the February 25 presidential vote was not in accordance with the constitution and that the poll must be held as soon as possible.
“The president doesn’t have the authority to postpone or cancel elections,” the Constitutional Council said in its ruling. His decision to postpone the vote “lacks legal basis” and should be annulled, the ruling judges said.
The legal move sets up a clash between the authority and the president who cancelled the vote over what he said were irregularities in how the Constitutional Council vetted candidates. The National Assembly ratified the president’s decision two days later in a rowdy parliamentary session that saw opposition MPs bundled out by riot police. Parliament adopted a resolution to delay the vote until December 15. Sall’s tenure, which ends on April 2, was also extended until the vote in the same resolution.
But the Constitutional Council ruled that Sall’s term “cannot be extended”, raising the prospect that the president would be an illegitimate leader if he was in office after his legal tenure ends in April.
Sall has not publicly commented on the Constitutional Council ruling and a presidential spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
Senegal has been in a state of upheaval since Sall’s announcement. Opposition parties have called the postponement a “constitutional coup” and said the country’s reputation of political normalcy in a region besieged by military regimes had been dented.
Guy Marius Sagna, an opposition lawmaker who was one of those escorted from parliament this month, warned before the Constitutional Council ruling that the opposition would establish its own government in April. “If President Macky Sall does not restore power to us on April 3, we will set up a parallel government of national unity,” Sagna told Senegalese radio.
Sporadic protests that have erupted in Senegal against the annulment have been put down by tear gas-wielding police stationed across strategic locations in the capital, Dakar, and other cities. The communications ministry has cut mobile internet regularly since the protests began, most recently this week. Three people have been killed in the demonstrations so far, with dozens more injured. The interior minister denied media reports that police were responsible for the attacks on protesters.
Sall has been accused by opponents and rights groups of a human rights crackdown and fostering an atmosphere of fear that has involved clamping down on the media. He flirted with the idea of running for a third term until giving it up last year. Ecowas, the regional bloc, and western allies France and the US have urged Senegal to return to its normal electoral calendar.
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