Protests repressed after postponement of presidential election – Technologist

The protester, dressed in the green, yellow and red of Senegal, covered his face with a handkerchief soaked in vinegar, before running from the tear gas fired by police. “The gendarmes are firing on us because President Macky Sall wants to cancel the presidential election. It’s a constitutional coup d’état,” said the young man, who didn’t give his name. In the streets of Dakar roadblocks were erected and tires burned.

Hundreds of people attempted to assemble on the afternoon of Sunday, February 4 on the voie de dégagement nord (VDN), one of Dakar’s main thoroughfares, in response to a call from some of the 20 presidential candidates, including Khalifa Sall and Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

The campaign for the election scheduled for February 25 was due to begin that day, but President Sall had the day before announced a postponement, citing “a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Council, in open conflict over an alleged case of corruption of judges.” Sall said that “these troubled conditions could seriously damage the credibility of the ballot by sowing the seeds of pre and post-electoral disputes.”

But in his opponents’ view, Sall’s decree repealing the earlier decree that convened the electoral body is illegal, and therefore the electoral process must be allowed to follow its course. “We plan to jointly challenge this decree in the relevant courts and file an appeal,” said candidate Déthié Fall, president of the Republican Party for Progress (PRP).

Sunday’s protests were dispersed by police, and as the afternoon wore on clashes erupted in several districts of the capital, with rocks thrown and tear gas fired, as well as in towns across the country. Candidate Anta Babacar Ngom and former prime minister Aminata Touré, who has joined the opposition, were detained, then released during the night. “This is intimidation, the situation is unacceptable. We have the right to oppose this unprecedented democratic regression in our country,” said Touré.

‘Catastrophic initiative’

Private television station Walf, part of the Walfadjiri press group, announced on Sunday that its signal had been cut and its license withdrawn by the authorities. The channel was also suspended in June last year, when opposition figure Ousmane Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison for “corruption of youth.” “We vigorously denounce this excessive measure, which is inadmissible in a democratic country,” said the Coordination of Press Associations (CAP) in a press release.

Religious leaders, through the League of Imams and Preachers of Senegal, said: “This attitude on the part of the Head of State contradicts his role as guardian of the constitution.” They urged Sall to “abandon this catastrophic initiative.”

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