Interview
Postponement of the Senegalese presidential election: “I have no words to describe it,” says former minister Abdou Latif Coulibaly
In Senegal, on February 3, 2024, President Macky Sall announced the
indefinite
postponement of the presidential election scheduled for the following February 25. A shocking announcement which immediately provoked the resignation of Abdou Latif Coulibaly, despite the political support of the head of state. At the microphone of Nathalie Amar, the now ex-minister Secretary General of the government of Senegal, explains this decision. Interview.
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[Archive image] Senegalese President Macky Sall (left) and Abdou Latif Coulibaly (right), here, December 6, 2018 in Dakar. AFP - SEYLLOU
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RFI: Abdou Latif Coulibaly, until Saturday you were minister, Secretary General of the government of Senegal. You have accompanied Macky Sall from the beginning, since 2012, as Minister of Culture, of the Promotion of Good Governance, and also as a spokesperson. But after the president's speech announcing the postponement to a still unknown date of the presidential election which was scheduled for February 25, you decided to resign. Why this decision?
Abdou Latif Coulibaly:
I decided to leave, to leave the government. I announced it to the President of the Republic immediately after his speech. I decided to leave because I want to regain all my freedom. My freedom to be able to express my opinions, to also be able to say what I think about what is happening today in my country, because I consider that there are moments in history when we should not to remain silent, where we must not respect government solidarity to the point of being completely outside of it.
This decision to postpone, for you, was it too much, the straw that broke the camel's back?
Quite. Because I said to myself, the President of the Republic did not have the power to do it, the National Assembly even less, and the reason is very simple: in 2016, we traveled through Senegal and President Macky Sall had reason to proceed with the reform of the Constitution to ensure that the mandate of the President of the Republic in its duration, as in the number of mandates, is established as an intangible principle: the law is sublimated to ensure that the mandate has the same character and the same legal nature as the intangibility of the republican character of the Senegalese State. And we agreed with him, and it was good to do it. And today he himself decides to give up all that.
For you, he changed his mind? Did he betray his commitments? He nevertheless relies on an article of the Constitution which says that the president can remain in place until his successor comes to power. Everyone finds in this Constitution arguments justifying their position. Do you dispute it?
It's not that I dispute... I simply note that we rejected everything we said and everything we engaged the Senegalese in in 2016. The president himself said in 2012, when President Obasanjo [
ex -Head of State of Nigeria, Editor's note
] who came as an observer had suggested the idea of postponing the 2012 election, he himself said that it is not conceivable or even possible that the President of the Republic, himself even, can increase his mandate by one day.
Read alsoThe great guest Africa - Postponement of the presidential election in Senegal: "This is not based on any valid legal basis", believes academic Babacar Gueye
In your opinion, is there a political aim to this postponement, beyond the question of the legitimacy, the right or not of Macky Sall to decide on this postponement, is there a political aim while Prime Minister Amadou Ba's campaign seems to be struggling to take off?
You're the one who said the campaign seems to be having trouble getting off the ground. It's a judgment you made. You have not seen the polls that are done in Senegal. I saw it, I saw it with my own eyes. Believe me when I tell you. This judgment you made is not correct. Secondly, it is not because Amadou Ba's campaign is having trouble getting off the ground that we should conclude that the February election must be canceled; that is unimaginable. Himself, Macky Sall in 2012, he had less than 27% of the votes. It could have been said that his campaign was getting off to a bad start. Abdoulaye Wade came out with less than 40 and a few percent, his campaign was not progressing. However, Abdoulaye Wade had not decided to cancel the election. He let the Senegalese judge.
How do you characterize what is happening today? Are you talking about authoritarian drift? A constitutional coup? A decline in democracy? What words can we put behind what is happening today?
I have no words to describe it, it's completely beyond me, that's the reason I left. If I had words to describe what is happening... And the good thing is that he was kind enough to listen to me, I explained my point of view to him. I am a Senegalese citizen, I have always said that there were two things that were essential and sacred for me: the State and the Republic. It is in the Republic that we believe, it is with it that we are strong, without it we are weakened. No one has the right to weaken the Republic. What is happening is that we are weakening the Republic.
You had alerted President Macky Sall to the risks of deciding on such a postponement. So you have not been heard. The National Assembly will consider the postponement today, the project proposes 6 months. What are – as far as you know – Macky Sall’s intentions? How long will this transition last?
Exactly, I can't understand his intentions. Because this postponement is not an advantage for him and not at all... Perhaps satisfying somewhere a request that I do not realize, of which I do not see the final objective. Perhaps it is simply that when we exercise power we believe that anything is possible. And whatever we think we should do, we do it. Yes, but only to the extent that it goes in a direction that unfolds in the direction of the history we want for our country. In 2023, on July 3, with remarkable lucidity, the president presented himself to the Senegalese and told them: I will not be a candidate, even if the law gives me the right to do so. In my opinion it would have been preferable, if he wanted to stay in power, to commit as Abdoulaye Wade had done, to have to face protests, which would have been normal. He presented himself to the Senegalese vote: if he wins, he is President of the Republic, if he does not win, well he does as Abdoulaye Wade did.
But Macky Sall today says that he will no longer be a candidate after this postponement than before, that he will leave the place anyway...
But it's even worse, saying it, knowing it, and doing what he did. It's even worse ! For what ? Because if he was a candidate, he himself would have participated in the course of history. But this time he stops the story. Even momentarily, he stops her. And everyone is concerned. If he presented himself and assumed his desire to do so, it would have been contested but he would have presented himself to the vote of the Senegalese, the Senegalese would have said yes or no. And there, it is he himself who decides the overall fate of the country.
Read alsoThe great guest Africa - Papa Fara Diallo: “There is an agreement between Benno Bokk Yakaar and the PDS for the postponement of the Senegalese presidential election”
Was he able to reach an agreement with Karim Wade's Senegalese Democratic Party for a postponement of the vote? Because it's astonishing to see the President of the Republic put institutions in danger in order to come to the aid of an opponent and possibly allow him to finally present himself.
A written agreement, I don't know, but an agreement on the approach and procedure is obvious. The majority voted, with the PDS. The PDS which also very seriously accuses the Prime Minister of having corrupted magistrates, and that is written in black and white. The Prime Minister of the Republic with whom we sit on the Council of Ministers, with whom we have not broken, the majority accused him like that. He is not before a high court, which no longer exists in Senegal. He is not judged. And today we are throwing him out to pasture and throwing a whole majority out to pasture.
Abdou Latif Coulibaly, I would also like to point out that you are the brother of one of the magistrates of the Constitutional Council whose integrity has been called into question. Last question on the future, is the open national dialogue that Macky Sall promised, possible in your opinion? Or are we heading towards a cycle of violence?
I must clarify, and it is a tendentious pretext, this story of corruption. For what ? I am an elected official within the country. As I speak to you, I am in my electoral base, my constituency, I have covered the entire department, which is my constituency. No act of preparation for this election has been undertaken. However, in Senegal, we are used to, for three months, preparing for this election, informing voters, pre-positioning equipment. Nothing was done, and it should have been done well before the Constitutional Council met, they did not do it.
Also readSpecial edition - Senegal: two days after the postponement of the presidential election, what political consequences for the country?
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