Senegal election delay ruled unlawful

COLOMBO (News 1st); Senegal’s top election authority on Thursday voided the government’s postponement of a presidential election scheduled for Feb. 25 and its rescheduling for December, ruling that the moves were unconstitutional.

Senegal’s Constitutional Council cancelled the decree signed by President Macky Sall that postponed the election.

The court judgement also said that the National Assembly’s decision on Feb. 5 to reschedule the vote for Dec. 15 also was “contrary to the constitution.”

The postponement has thrown the country into political turmoil, and it was not immediately clear if the election could go forward as initially scheduled, or whether more time would be needed to allow for political campaigns.

The Senegalese leader had postponed the election hours before campaigns were to start, citing a dispute between the judiciary and the legislature over the final list of candidates as well as the reported dual nationality of some of the candidates.

The postponement was rejected by opposition leaders who led a protest against it, resulting in violent clashes with security forces, arrests and mobile internet cuts that further deepened political tensions in one of Africa’s most stable democracies.

This year’s election, unlike previous years, has been dogged by controversies from deadly protests that resulted in Sall announcing that he would not seek a third term, to the disqualification of two opposition leaders.