President Postpone Presidential Election Indefinitely

Senegalese President Macky Sall has announced the indefinite postponement of a presidential election scheduled for February 25, just hours before official campaigning was due to start.

In an address to the nation, Sall said he signed a decree abolishing a previous measure that set the date, because lawmakers were investigating two Constitutional Council judges whose integrity in the election process has been questioned, and this is the first time a Senegalese presidential election has been postponed. The decision comes following a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court over the rejection of candidates.

The Constitutional Council has excluded dozens of candidates from the vote, including firebrand anti-system figurehead Ousmane Sonko, who has been jailed since July 2023, and Karim Wade, son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, while, wade’s supporters in the National Assembly called for a parliamentary inquiry into the partiality of two judges on the Constitutional Court, and the motion was passed by the Assembly on January 31, with some members of Sall’s party supporting it.

Meanwhile, Rose Wardini, one of only two women on the approved list of candidates, was detained Friday on charges of allegedly hiding her French citizenship, according to judicial sources.