Senegalese President, Macky Sall declared an indefinite delay of the February 25 presidential election in an address to the nation on Saturday.
This announcement came from the Senegal President mere hours before the commencement of official campaigning.
Sall explained that he had signed a decree revoking a previous decision that had fixed the election date.
The delay is attributed to an ongoing investigation into the integrity of two Constitutional Council judges involved in the electoral process, whose credibility has been called into question.
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“I will begin an open national dialogue to bring together the conditions for a free, transparent, and inclusive election,” Sall added without giving a new date.
It is the first time a Senegalese presidential election has been postponed.
A November 2023 decree signed by Sall fixed the election for February 25, with 20 candidates in the running but without two major opposition figures.
Sall had repeatedly said he would hand over power in early April to the winner of the vote.
After announcing he would not run for a third term as president, Sall designated Prime Minister Amadou Ba from his party as his would-be successor.
The Constitutional Council has excluded dozens of candidates from the vote, including firebrand anti-system figurehead Ousmane Sonko and Karim Wade, son of former president Abdoulaye Wade.
Source: AFP