In Senegal, the Constitutional Council has delivered its verdict. The country's highest judicial body ruled in the minutes of a meeting published Thursday, February 15, that the text of the law adopted by Parliament to postpone the presidential election, which was initially scheduled to be held on February 25, violates the Constitution and must be annulled.

The cancellation of the electoral process by President Macky Sall, a few hours before the start of the campaign, sent shockwaves through the country. The National Assembly then voted to postpone it, setting the date for December 15. The news aroused the anger of many Senegalese, quick to denounce a violation of the constitution, allowing President Macky Sall to remain in power.

On Friday, the country experienced its most intense day of demonstrations against the postponement of the presidential election. Violence broke out in several regions of the country, leaving three people dead. 

Read alsoSenegal: scuffles and anti-Macky Sall slogans in Dakar

Release of opponents

On Thursday, several detained opponents were released. The president faces exhortations from important international partners, the opposition and civil society to abandon the postponement to December 15 of the election, initially scheduled for February 25.

He is also facing calls from those in Senegal who, for or against the change of calendar, are worried about the risk of chaos and violence after the deaths of three young men in demonstrations last week.

New calls to demonstrate have been launched for Friday, a week after a march organized by a civil society collective is also planned for Saturday.

“Most of my clients in cases set up for political considerations are released,” Me Cheikh Koureissy Bâ told AFP. He assured that this concerned several dozen detainees.

On a list of several of them given to AFP by Me Moussa Sarr include Aliou Sané, coordinator of the citizen movement "Y'en a marre", Djamil Sané, mayor of a commune in Dakar and several members of the Former opposition party Pastef of the opposition figure, Ousmane Sonko.

Money change ?                  

“International pressure is causing President Macky Sall to order releases,” Souleymane Djim, a member of the Collective of Families of Political Prisoners, commented to AFP, who also confirms that releases are in progress.

One of the main candidates announced for the 2024 presidential election, Ousmane Sonko, but also his second at the head of the dissolved Pastef party, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, have been detained since 2023. There is currently no information on their possible release. .

In front of Rebeuss prison in Dakar, around fifty people are waiting for their loved one to be released, noted an AFP journalist. 

“I am waiting for the release of a friend, a brother called Mbaye. He was arrested on August 1 and he has been incarcerated for six months,” Khadim Gueye, 40, told AFP .

"My mind is elsewhere, I don't know what to answer, I'm not totally relieved. The country is not yet liberated," a detainee who has just been released, but who does not want to be identified.

“They just came to tell us: you’re going out,” says Gagné Demba Gueye, 32 years old. “We are a bargaining chip, they are taking us out against the stability of the country,” he says, wearing a bracelet in the colors of Pastef.

Political standoff

“We are going to resume the fight. We have never given up,” he adds. Since the start of the week, the political world has been buzzing about the possibility of an amnesty likely to be discussed in the council of ministers, but no announcement to this effect has been made.

The announcement by President Macky Sall of the postponement of the presidential election three weeks before the deadline provoked an outcry in this country known for its stability in a region affected by the multiplication of coups d'état.

The National Assembly then ratified the postponement of the vote to December 15 and the maintenance of President Sall in his post until his successor takes office, a priori in early 2025, after the opposition deputies were expelled by the police.

Several hundred members of the opposition, more than a thousand according to some human rights organizations, have been arrested since 2021 and the power struggle between Ousmane Sonko, implicated in several legal proceedings, and President Macky Sall.

With AFP

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