Senegal is known for being a strong supporter of democracy in a troubled area. But now, there are clashes between protesters and police near the National Assembly, and this could hurt its reputation.
In a meeting, politicians agreed to change the rules so that President Macky Sall can stay in office for longer and the elections can be delayed. This happened because he canceled the upcoming election with only three weeks left.
Khalifa Sall, a top critic and former mayor of Dakar who is not related to the president, said the delay is like breaking the rules of the country and is telling people to protest against it. His group of politicians promised to take their case to the court.
Thierno Alassane Sall, a different candidate who is not related, said it was very wrong and encouraged his followers to go to the National Assembly to protest and make sure the lawmakers do the right thing.
The idea had to be supported by three out of every five people. The ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar coalition, which includes President Sall’s party, has a small lead in parliament.
The room was tense and it was said that some MPs who disagreed with the government were taken out by security because they tried to stop the meeting.
In the end, 105 members of Parliament agreed with the proposal. At first, they wanted to delay it for six months, but they changed their minds at the last minute and extended it to 10 months, or until December 15th.
Mr Sall said again that he was not going to run for office again. But people who don’t like him say that he is either trying to hold onto power or unfairly influencing the next leader.
As soon as he said the event will be delayed for the first time ever, protesters walked through the city of Dakar, asking for it to be changed back.
Senegal has been considered as a very stable democracy in West Africa for a long time. It is the only country in mainland West Africa that has never had a takeover by the army. It has had three times when people peacefully gave their power to someone else, and it always had presidential elections on time.
In 2017, soldiers from Senegal went to The Gambia to kick out Yahya Jammeh, who had been in charge for a long time, because he didn’t want to admit he lost an election. In a place where there have been many sudden takeovers of the government, President Sall has played an important role in getting countries in West Africa to make military leaders have elections and give up power to regular people.
Senegal’s reputation for being a democratic country is in danger, and there is a growing problem with the country’s constitution. Experts believe that the country is being tested on whether its elections are fair and if its courts can make decisions without being influenced.
For over two years, there has been increasing conflict because the opposition believes they were unfairly kept out of the election by falsely accusing their candidates of crimes. One big party that disagreed was not allowed to participate anymore.
The officials said they didn’t use the law for politics and the President tried to calm things down by postponing the vote, but it doesn’t seem to have worked.
“The decision has caused a big problem with Senegal’s constitution,” says Mucahid Durmaz, an expert on West Africa at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroth, when talking to the media.
The law says that elections must be scheduled at least 30 days before the current president’s term ends. Sall’s rule will end on April 2nd. The electoral calendar must be made public 80 days before the vote. Even if he chooses a temporary president after 2 April, some people will argue about whether it is legal or not.
The government stopped people from using mobile internet to stop them from spreading harmful messages online and to make it difficult for protesters to make plans.
Some people have been using wifi and Virtual Private Networks (VPN’s) to get around the restrictions, but not everyone can do this.
The opposition is unhappy about the private TV channel Walf TV being taken off the air because the government says it was encouraging violence during the protests.
Two politicians who oppose the government, including former Prime Minister Aminata Touré, were briefly taken into custody after the protests. Touré used to be a close friend of President Sall but now she strongly disagrees with him.
Critics worry that the crackdown could make the country’s political problems worse and could also be bad for the whole West African area.
People in Senegal are not as happy with their government as they used to be when Mr. Sall became the leader. In 2013, a survey by Afrobarometer showed that when Mr. Sall became president, most Senegalese people were happy with democracy. By 2022, fewer than half were.
However, Durmaz does not think there will be a military takeover in Senegal because there are many different political parties, a strong civil society, and religious leaders who help solve problems between politicians.
Twenty people are on the final list to run for elections, but some were not allowed to because they didn’t meet the rules.
Two important leaders, Ousmane Sonko and Karim Wade, were not allowed to run for election. Sonko was banned because he was found guilty of libel, and Wade was accused of having citizenship in France. Both of them claim that the accusations against them are being made for political reasons.
Even though Mr Sonko is late, he probably won’t be able to join the election. His party has already replaced him with Bassirou Faye, who is also in jail but can still run for election, according to Mr Durmaz.
Mr Sonko has proved that he can gather his followers to protest on the streets. As long as he is not allowed, there will likely be high tensions.
His banned political party, Pastef, has promised to fight against the delay. They say it’s a big problem for our country and shows disrespect for what the people want.
This has happened before when people who want to win against the current leader couldn’t run in the election. Both Karim Wade and Khalifa Sall were put in jail for doing bad things in 2015 and 2018. They were also not allowed to run for office in 2019.
This time, accusations of corruption in the Constitutional Council by Karim Wade’s party led to a government investigation.
President Sall said the election was delayed because they needed time to solve a disagreement between the Council and some members of parliament.
Many people are upset about the delay, but Mr. Wade’s Senegalese Democratic Party supports it. If the party’s MPs vote with the government, the bill might pass.
But Wole Ojewale, who works in Dakar and is in charge of Central Africa at the Institute for Security Studies, says the wait is not right.
The president does not control the election process. As long as the election officials are capable, there should be no doubts about their ability to run the election. I believe nothing should stop the political process.
Some people think Mr. Sall was worried that his chosen successor, Prime Minister Amadou Ba, might not win the election.
His party is losing strength. Ojewale says there are signs that they might want to change their candidate.
He thinks we can still have the election when we planned. If not, the country could have a lot of trouble and become a place where the police have a lot of power and people’s rights are taken away. Durmaz thinks this could happen.
Ecowas and the African Union want people to talk to each other. France, the US, and the EU want an election to happen as soon as possible.
But Durmaz says that President Sall’s reputation in other countries would make it unlikely for him to be pressured from outside.
“He doesn’t think Ecowas will strongly urge Senegal to change the election date. He says Ecowas and the AU’s reputation has been damaged because they haven’t been able to address the lack of democracy in civilian-led countries. ”
Now everyone will be watching the regional groups to see how they handle another problem with democracy in West Africa.