Organisers have postponed a protest march scheduled for Tuesday against Senegalese President Macky Sall’s controversial move to delay this month’s presidential poll to December.
Elymane Haby Kane, one of the march organisers, said he received an official letter from local authorities in Dakar. It stated that authorities banned the march as it could seriously hamper traffic.
“We will postpone the march because we want to remain within the law,” said Malick Diop. Diop is the coordinator of a collective that called the protest.
“Local Authorities ban the march. There’s a problem with the route so we will change this,” Diop said.
The government also restricted mobile internet coverage, just like on the day of the parliamentary vote.
“Due to the dissemination on social networks of several subversive hate messages that have already provoked violent demonstrations… mobile data is suspended this Tuesday 13 February,” the Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications and Digital Energy said in a statement.
Sall’s decision to push back the Feb. 25 vote plunged Senegal into a crisis that saw clashes between protesters and the Police, during which three people died.
The Aar Sunu Election (Let’s Protect Our Election) collective, had called for a rally, on Tuesday in Dakar at 15:00 GMT. The collective includes some 40 civil, religious and professional groups.
ECOWAS has called on the Senegalese government to restore the original election timetable. It has sent a delegation to Dakar to mediate in the crisis.
AU Commission Chairman, Moussa Faki Mahamat, also urged Senegal to resolve its “political dispute through consultation, understanding and dialogue”.
‘Constitutional coup’
Sall said he postponed the election because of a dispute between parliament and the Constitutional Council over potential candidates barred from running and over fears of a return to unrest seen in 2021 and 2023.
Parliament backed the suspension of the election until Dec. 15. But only after security forces stormed the National Assembly and detained some opposition lawmakers.
The vote paved the way for Sall to remain in office until his successor emerges, probably in 2025. His second term is due to expire in April.
Sall, who has been in power since 2012, is now seeking a way out of the turmoil.
Media have reported the possibility of a new dialogue with the opposition, including anti-establishment firebrand opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, who fought the state for more than two years before being imprisoned last year.
“He (Sall) continues to call for dialogue to bring the opposition to the table to meet and discuss why he’s delayed the elections,” said Haque on Tuesday. He added that there could be a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Some have suggested the possibility of an amnesty for Sonko, his imprisoned second-in-command Bassirou Diomaye Faye, and for people detained during unrest in 2021 and 2023.
Senegal’s eight public universities began a two-day strike on Monday in protest against the death of a student during Friday’s unrest in the northern city of Saint-Louis, the main higher education union said. (Al-Jazeera & Agencies reports)
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