© SEYLLOU / AFP
Pe the date of July 31 approaches and the more the political climate becomes tense in Senegal. July 31 is the date of the legislative elections. The Senegalese elect their 150 deputies according to a method that mixes proportional voting with national lists for 53 parliamentarians and majority voting in the departments for 97 others. The diaspora elects 15 deputies. For the proportional vote, the organizations present a list of holders and a list of substitutes. But the main opposition coalition Yewwi Askan Wi does not take off after the decision of the Constitutional Council to invalidate its national list of incumbent candidates, following an error in the preparation of the list. A decision with serious consequences, because several opposition figures, like Ousmane Sonko, are excluded from the ballot. For the opposition, the Constitutional Council is under orders to prevent his victory and a future cohabitation with the president Macky Sall. Objective: to prevent him from weighing in future elections, including the presidential election of 2024.
READ ALSOLocal elections in Senegal: political redistribution underway?
The opposition suspected of wanting to impose cohabitation on President Sall
It’s in front of thousands of people ? in the national colors green, gold and red, with a star in the middle of the gold color? gathered Place de la Nation in Dakar, Wednesday, June 8, that the opponents? including Ousmane Sonko, arrived and declared candidate for that of 2024, and other figures? have announced that they will maintain their candidacies for the July 31 legislative elections at all costs. “Senegal is in danger and Macky Sall is solely responsible,” charges Sonko. “We will be part of the national list and Ousmane Sonko will be our head of the list,” says Khalifa Sall.
Despite a calm mobilization, the power for its part accuses the opposition of calling for violence. And Senegalese President Macky Sall to close the door on Thursday evening to a draft of the national opposition list. “If you make a list that does not respect what the law says, it is eliminated,” said the Senegalese head of state in an interview with French media France 24 and RFI. “We have a Code [électoral] with its demands,” he told reporters when asked if he feared violence if no solution was found to the apparent political stalemate. “Anyway, the country is going to hold these elections, the Constitutional Council has decided” and his own camp, as far as he is concerned, has complied with the invalidation of one of his lists, replied the president.
READ ALSOSenegal: “We must rethink the whole system collectively”
52 days before the poll
Indeed, the Constitutional Council also invalidated the list of substitutes for the presidential majority, but not that of the incumbents. The uncertainty maintained until the end as to whether or not to demonstrate on Wednesday increased the fear of excesses. The prefect of Dakar waited until Wednesday morning to issue the authorization. The demonstration is also seen as a test of the opposition’s ability to mobilize its troops. The questioning of the opponent Sonko by justice in a rape case suspected had contributed in March 2021 to several days of riots which had left at least a dozen dead. The legislative aims to renew the 165 deputies of theNational Assemblylargely dominated by the presidential coalition.
READ ALSOMunicipalities of Senegal: a vote in no-confidence mode