SENEGAL’s outgoing President Macky Sall on Thursday said his mandate would end as planned on April 2, but left open the date of the presidential election which he postponed earlier this month.
Sall had faced a growing clamour to set a date for the vote after his abrupt delay to the February 25 election triggered weeks of political crisis.
“On 2 April 2024, my mission ends at the head of Senegal”, the president said.
“As far as the date is concerned, we’ll see what the dialogue comes up with,” he said during a televised press interview, referring to the political dialogue he intends to conduct from Monday.
“The election can be held before or after 2 April,” he said.
But asked whether the election could be held between now and April 2, he replied “I don’t think so.”
Sall had announced the election delay hours before official campaigning was due to begin, with parliament backing the move, despite strong opposition, and then setting a new election date for mid-December.
The opposition denounced Sall’s move as a “constitutional coup”, saying his party feared defeat at the ballot box.
The delay plunged the traditionally stable West African country into its worst political crisis in decades and sparked unrest that has left four people dead.
Adding to the uncertainty, the top constitutional body last week overturned the delay and called for the vote to be organised “as soon as possible”.
Sall said that he would “without delay carry out the consultations necessary” to do so.
The president called during Wednesday’s cabinet meeting for “all the arrangements” to be made “for the presidential election to be organised well on a date which will be set very soon”, according to the presidency.
It added that this would be “after consultations with politicians, civil society officials and representatives of key actors”.
