In his first interview since announcing the delay, Sall brushed off allegations that the decision was unconstitutional and that he’d created a constitutional crisis, saying the country needed more time to resolve controversies over the disqualification of some candidates and a conflict between the legislative and judicial branches of government.
Senegal is one of West Africa’s most stable democracies, but the presidential vote has been dogged by controversies from deadly protests that resulted in Sall announcing that he would not seek a third term, to the disqualification of two opposition leaders by the highest election authority.
Sall spoke to the AP inside the presidential palace in the capital, Dakar, while outside, hundreds of protestors took to the streets, burning tires, throwing stones and blocking traffic as security forces used tear gas to disperse them.
Senegalese faith in democracy has significantly declined under Sall, with more than half of citizens saying their country is less democratic now than it was five years ago, according to Afrobarometer, an independent survey research network.
Two experts at the U.S. Institutes of Peace wrote that Sall was responsible for the crisis he cited to delay the election, calling them “disputes that his administration, and a presidentially appointed constitutional council, have largely created by barring prominent opposition figures or their parties from the electoral process.”
But a Senegal expert said the only way out of the current crisis is for the government to release opposition candidates from jail, for Sall to end his tenure on time and for the Constitutional Council to annul the decree.
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