Election postponement in Senegal declared illegal

Senegal’s top court said that postponing this month’s elections goes against the country’s constitution.

The Constitutional Council canceled President Macky Sall’s decision and a controversial law passed by parliament, which means the vote will now take place in December.

There are big protests happening in a country in West Africa that used to be known for its strong democracy.

Opposition leaders said it was like a takeover of the constitution.

Mr Sall said he would delay the election because he was worried about whether the opposition candidates were allowed to participate.

He got support from 105 out of 165 MPs for his idea after a heated argument, and the police had to remove some of the opposing MPs from the room. Originally it was suggested to delay the election by six months, but at the last minute it was changed to 10 months, so now the new election date is 15th December.

Mr Sall said again that he does not want to run for office again. But people who disagree with him said he either wants to stay in charge or wants to have too much control over the next leader.

The court’s decision on Thursday evening will make opposition candidates and lawmakers who had filed legal challenges to the bill feel justified.

Khalifa Sall, a top challenger and a former mayor of Dakar, who is not a relative of the president, said the delay was like a “constitutional coup. ” Another candidate, Thierno Alassane Sall, who is also not related, called it “high treason. ”

The court said the election can’t happen on February 25, but they want it to happen as soon as they can.

Mr Sall has not responded to the decision yet. His second time in office ends on April 2nd.

The election might happen before April, but the arguments that caused the polls to be delayed are still not fixed. These include claims of corruption in the Constitutional Council and objections from opposition candidates who were not included in the candidate list last month.

Carrying out the elections with the controversial candidate list could cause more protests and fighting by the followers of the people who are not allowed to run, especially Ousmane Sonko, who is very popular among young Senegalese.

Many candidates have not been campaigning since President Sall issued his decree on 3 February, just before campaigns were supposed to start.

The decision comes at the same time as a few opposition politicians and members of civil society were let out of jail. Some people in the country think this was done to make the public happy.

Senegal has been known for a long time as one of the most stable countries with a democratic government in the area. This country in mainland West Africa has never had a military takeover. It has changed leaders three times without much trouble and never before pushed back a presidential election until now.