The Senegalese head of state, Macky Sall, announced Monday, February 26, at the heart of a serious crisis surrounding the postponement of the presidential election, a general amnesty bill for facts linked to the unrest experienced by his country since 2021. “In a spirit of national reconciliation, I will submit to the National Assembly this Wednesday in the Council of Ministers a general amnesty bill on the facts relating to political demonstrations occurring between 2021 and 2024,” said the Senegalese president by opening consultations to try to find an agreement on the date of the presidential election, in Diamniadio, near Dakar.
“This will help pacify the political space and further strengthen our national cohesion,” he said. He affirmed his wish to organize the presidential election by June-July, while a vast front is demanding it before April 2. “My will, and my dearest wish, is to hold the presidential election as soon as possible and before the next winter [the rainy season], and in peace,” he said. He then reaffirmed his commitment to leaving the presidency on the official expiration date of his mandate, April 2, saying: “In convening this dialogue, I have only one concern: finding consensus on the date of the next presidential election so that the vote takes place in the best conditions. »
Mr. Sall gave himself two days, Monday and Tuesday, for a “consensus” to emerge on the date of the presidential election. However, these consultations, entitled "national dialogue", are taking place with a few hundred political leaders, religious leaders and representatives of civil society, but in the absence of some of the protagonists of the crisis, starting with seventeen of the nineteen candidates selected in January for the presidential election by the Constitutional Council.
Hundreds of opponents released ten days ago
A certain number of Mr. Sall's competitors went to the Constitutional Court on Monday to ask its members to formally note the failure of the Head of State to fulfill his duty to organize the presidential election. One of them, Cheikh Tidiane Dieye, sees in this “national dialogue” a “theater” that the head of state “could have organized at the Grand Théâtre” in Dakar.
Since 2021, hundreds of people have been arrested and prosecuted on various counts. Among them are leading political figures, including the anti-system opponent Ousmane Sonko, at the heart of the agitation, and his second, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, presidential candidate. Hundreds of opponents have already been released ten days ago.
Various actors have also refused such an amnesty law for fear that it would erase the acts of which government or security officials are accused. They rejected as a trap the idea that this amnesty was part of the consultations to try to find an agreement on the date of the presidential election.
“Constitutional coup”
The president, Macky Sall, triggered a shock wave on February 3 by decreeing a last-minute postponement of the election. The opposition denounced a “constitutional coup”. Repressed demonstrations left four dead and led to dozens of arrests. However, the Constitutional Council vetoed the postponement. He noted the impossibility of holding the presidential election on February 25 and asked the authorities to organize it “as soon as possible”.
A broad political and citizen front was formed to demand that the election take place before April 2. The citizen collective Aar Sunu Election (“Let’s Preserve Our Election”) is calling for a nationwide “dead cities” day and a general strike on Tuesday.
This front is concerned about the consequences of a vacancy in the presidency without established succession. Macky Sall himself expressed doubts about the feasibility of an election before his departure. Others accuse him of playing for time, either to advantage his side because things would look bad for him in the presidential election, or to cling to power beyond April 2. They fear that the “dialogue” will be used to re-examine the applications.
The president, Macky Sall, elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2019, is not a candidate. He justified the postponement of the presidential election by his fear that a contested election would provoke new outbursts of violence after those experienced in 2021 and 2023.
