Senegal’s scheduled presidential election for February 25 has been postponed by President Macky Sall.
Sall, who was heavily reported to be interested in a third term reign at the presidency last year, announced via a broadcast speech to the country that he had revoked the appropriate electoral statute because of electoral disputes that he said may spark unrest.
With little more than three weeks to go before the vote, the unprecedented step of delaying the poll to an unspecified date pitches Senegal into uncharted constitutional waters that some opposition and civil society groups warn could destabilise the country.
Sall’s decision follows the constitutional council’s January decision to exclude some prominent contenders from the electoral list, which has fuelled discontent about the election process.
“These troubled conditions could seriously undermine the credibility of the ballot by sowing the seeds of pre- and post-electoral disputes,” Sall said in his address.
He announced a national conversation to guarantee a free, fair, and transparent election, but he did not announce a new date for voting.
The decision to not seek a third term, which has sparked frequent and occasionally fatal protests in what is often one of West Africa’s most stable democracies, was not affected, he added, by the postponement.
Following Sall’s declaration, there was no apparent indication that anyone was taking to the streets in protest in Dakar, the country’s capital.