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PoliticsSenegal

Senegal announces new date for delayed presidential election

March 6, 2024

Following weeks of protests, President Macky Sall's government has announced a presidential election will take place later this month.

https://p.dw.com/p/4dFBD
People, holding banners, stage demonstration demanding presidential elections
Senegalese demonstrators have been relentless in demanding elections be held before the end of Sall's termImage: Cem Ozde/Anadolu/picture alliance

Senegal's government announced on Wednesday that the delayed presidential election will take place on March 24.

On February 3, President Macky Sall announced the postponement of elections scheduled for February 25, triggering widespread uproar in a country that many observers view as a stable democracy.

The Senegalese Constitutional Council declared Sall's postponement of the election null and void and on Wednesday said arranging the vote for a date after his mandate expires on April 2 would be unconstitutional.

Government dissolved

The electoral crisis emerged after a thwarted bid by authorities to postpone the vote to December.

"The President of the Republic informed the Council of Ministers of the setting of the date of the presidential election for Sunday March 24, 2024," government spokesperson Abdou Karim Fofana said in the statement on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, Sall dissolved the Senegalese government, replacing Prime Minister Amadou Ba with Interior Minister Sidiki Kaba. The reshuffle would allow Ba to focus on his electoral campaign, the presidency said.

Senegal's election delay, President Macky Sall's legacy

rmt/lo (AP, Reuters)