GORÉE INSTITUTE EXPRESSES CONCERNS OVER POSPONEMNT OF SENEGAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
For the first time since Senegal's independence, a presidential election has been postponed. On February 03, 2024, on the eve of the start of the electoral campaign, President Macky Sall, in a speech addressed to the Nation, decided by decree N°2023-2283 convening the electoral body, to cancel the presidential election of February 25 and postpone it to December 15, 2024. This announcement gave rise to violent demonstrations and arrests of opposition politicians, demonstrating the lack of consensus among the political players around this postponement.
This postponement constitutes a confiscation of the individual sovereignty of Senegalese citizens.
In strictly legal terms, the postponement is strongly contested. The repeal of the decree convening the electoral body has no legal basis, according to several experts and constitutionalists. It contravenes Article 92 of the Constitution, which stipulates that the decisions of the Constitutional Council are binding on administrative and judicial authorities.
Even more seriously, the postponement of the presidential election constitutes a violation of Articles 27 and 103 of the Constitution, which make the length and number of presidential terms intangible provisions.
At the community level, this postponement appears to be a violation of ECOWAS Protocol A/SP1/01 on Democracy and Governance, which prohibits any substantial modification of the electoral law in the six (06) months preceding the ballot without the agreement of the majority of political players.
It is clear that this postponement is more a source of institutional and political crisis than a solution to the institutional crisis, as claimed by the public authorities. On the strength of these observations and in accordance with its Founding Act,
The Gorée Institute:
• Regrets the postponement of the presidential election, which comes on the eve of the start of the electoral campaign, causing a great deal of prejudice and inconvenience to the presidential candidates.
• Calls for the electoral calendar to be respected, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, the
Electoral Code and Senegal's international and regional commitments
• Calls on political and civic actors to give priority to dialogue and consultation to prevent the current tension from degenerating into a full-blown electoral crisis
• Calls in particular on the President of the Republic, guarantor of the country's stability, to give priority to consensual solutions to electoral issues
• Calls on the State of Senegal not to restrict civic space and to sensitize the security forces to avoid the repression of opponents and citizens alike
• Calls on international organizations in general, and ECOWAS and the African Union in particular, to ensure that member states respect their commitments to democracy and elections.
• Calls on all Senegalese civil society organizations to form a united front for the establishment of a citizens' synergy for democratic elections in Senegal, respecting citizens' fundamental freedoms.
• Calls on the EMBs, in particular the Constitutional Council, to assume all their responsibilities to ensure that the republican calendar and the electoral process are respected, to guarantee the country's stability.
• Calls on the Constitutional Council, the guarantor of the conformity of laws and international commitments with the Constitution, to deal promptly, fairly and equitably with petitions to annul the decree repealing decree no. 2023-2283 convening the electorate for the presidential election of February 25, 2024.
As a reminder, elections represent the legal and constitutional mechanism for the renewal of leaders or representatives of the people. They also serve to legitimize political power.
Elections are the only constitutional processes that enable citizens to recover their individual sovereignty, by exercising their right to vote to choose or sanction their leaders. As such, respect for the electoral calendar remains a constitutional prerogative from which no one can derogate.
No to the confiscation of individual sovereignty!
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