PROTESTERS and police clashed in the Senegalese capital Dakar and at least one senior opposition figure was arrested Sunday, a day after President Macky Sall announced the indefinite postponement of the presidential election.
The presidential election had been set for February 25 and Sall has not announced any new date, sparking a wave of criticism from opposition leaders and international concern.
In his statement Saturday, Sall said he was intervening because of a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court over the rejection of candidates.
Lawmakers are investigating two Constitutional Council judges whose integrity in the election process has been questioned. Sall promised to ensure “a free, transparent and inclusive election”, but did not set a new date for the vote.
On Sunday, hundreds of men and women took to the streets, answering the call of some opposition leaders.
Waving Senegalese flags or sporting the jersey of the national football team, they converged in the early afternoon at a roundabout on one of the capital’s main roads.
Police, some on foot and others in pick-up trucks, responded with tear gas and then pursued the fleeing protesters through adjoining streets, while some demonstrators responded by throwing rocks.
Youths shouting “Macky Sall, dictator!” set up makeshift barricades and burned tyres in the streets.
Former prime minister Aminata Toure, now a leading opposition figure, was arrested while arriving at one protest.
She posted on X, formerly Twitter, that she had just been detained, which opposition deputy Guy Marius Sagna confirmed to AFP. Toure served as prime minister under Sall before joining the opposition and becoming one of his most outspoken critics.
She had denounced his decision to postpone the election as an “unprecedented democratic regression” in a post on X Saturday.
Another presidential candidate, Daouda Ndiaye, posted on social media to say he had been beaten by the security forces.
