The political crisis has deepen in Senegal as the Constitutional Council annulled both President Macky Sall’s decree and a contentious bill passed by parliament moving the vote to December.
Senegal has been considered a peaceful West African nation
The court decision was welcomed by the leading opposition figure, saying the ruling was “a great day for democracy”.
“We’ve been so ashamed by all this violation of the law and the constitution,” Aminata Touré, a former prime minister and now opposition figure, told the BBC’s Newsday programme.
Anta Babacar, the only female candidate, agreed.
“We are actually very, very proud of our Constitutional Council and it shows that there is at least a little bit of democracy and justice that’s left in our country,” she said.
The priority now was to set a new election date, she added in an interview with the BBC.
On 3 February, Mr Sall announced he was pushing back the election date – originally scheduled for 25 February – because of concerns over the eligibility of opposition candidates.
Political observers of the West African subregion are concerned with the situation in Senegal with fears that if the situation is not carefully managed, may lead to a military action as happened in Burkina Fasso, Mali and Niger Republic
The proposal of election postponement was supported by 105 out of the 165 MPs after a fiery debate which saw police remove some opposition MPs from the chamber. A six-month postponement was originally proposed, but a last-minute amendment extended it to 10 months, meaning a new election date of 15 December.
Mr Sall had reiterated that he was not planning to run for office again. But his critics accused him of either trying to cling on to power or unfairly influencing whoever succeeds him.
