President Macky Sall of Senegal could set election date after crisis talks

Senegal’s President Macky Sall could soon set a date for a delayed presidential election after two days of talks aimed at settling the country’s biggest political crisis in decades.

Sall chaired a Council of Ministers meeting on Wednesday, during which he intended to present a draft amnesty bill. By mid-afternoon, no official information had been released about the progress of the meeting.

The bill was part of his response to a crisis sparked by his postponement of a presidential election that had been due to take place last Sunday.

The amnesty could result in the release of hundreds of people detained during anti-government protests that first erupted in 2021, including leading opposition figure Ousmane Sonko.

Sall opened a two-day “national dialogue” on Monday aimed at reaching a “consensus” on a new election date — which he proposed could be held by June or July.

Hundreds of political leaders, civil society representatives and religious figures gathered for the two-day meeting in the new town of Diamniadio, some 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Dakar.

The West African nation is facing its worst political crisis in decades after Sall abruptly deferred the presidential vote just hours before campaigning was due to begin.

Sall, in power since 2012, said he called off the vote due to disputes over the disqualification of potential candidates and fears of a return to the unrest seen in 2021 and 2023.

• Broad consensus –

Sall said last week that he would set a date “immediately” if there was a “consensus”.

The consultations on Tuesday led to a “broad consensus” on various points, several participants told AFP:

• The presidential election should take place after April 2. Some participants mentioned June 2 as the earliest date, while others mentioned July.
• Sall should remain in office until the incoming president is sworn in, which would be in July at the earliest in the event of an election on June 2 and a likely second round.
• The controversial list of 19 candidates validated in January — from which several prominent opposition figures were barred — should be at least partially re-examined.

There was no indication on Wednesday whether or in what form these proposals had been submitted to the president.

Seventeen of the 19 candidates approved by the Constitutional Council to stand in the election also boycotted the discussions, as did other civil society groups.

The “dialogue” participants have “delivered 100 percent of Macky Sall’s order”, one of the 17 candidates and opponent Thierno Alassane Sall, said on social media.

• Constitutional questions –

The “dialogue” proposals have raised a number of questions about whether they will be accepted by the president.

After the announcement of the postponement on February 3, demonstrations were repressed, resulting in four deaths and dozens of arrests.

But the opposition and civil society struggled to mobilise large numbers of people.

Another unknown factor is the reaction of the Constitutional Council.

In vetoing the postponement on February 15, the Council had written that “the President’s mandate… cannot be extended” and that “the date of the election cannot be postponed beyond the term of office”.

The participants in the dialogue are invoking article 36 of the constitution, which states that the president “shall remain in office until his successor is installed”.

“Macky Sall and his accomplices are forgetting just one detail: if all the political parties in Senegal, civil society as a whole, and the official and unsuccessful candidates were to agree, their consensus would not prevail over the constitution,” Thierno Alassane Sall said.