Senegal’s troubled democracy

 Chilly winds are blowing against democracy in Senegal, a country perceived as a bastion of that political culture in Africa. The country’s parliament, last Monday, voted to push back its presidential election till 15th December – marking a ten-month delay in the initial poll schedule, and effectively an unconstitutional extension of the tenure of President Macky Sall. A controversial bill to delay the poll passed in the legislative assembly following a chaotic voting process that saw security forces breaking up an attempt by some opposition lawmakers and concerned citizens to block the vote. Civil protests occasioned by the poll shift persisted till weekend.

President Sall had penultimate Saturday announced an indefinite postponement of the presidential poll that was originally slated to hold on 25th February. The delay came just hours before official electioneering by participating candidates was due to commence. Sall premised his decision to pull the vote on a row between the country’s legislative assembly and the constitutional court over the disqualification of some candidates. “I will begin an open national dialogue to bring together the conditions for a free, transparent and inclusive election,” he had said in a national broadcast without giving a new date for the poll.

The dispute that Sall blamed for the poll shift arose out of the decision by the constitutional court to exclude Karim Wade, son of former President Abdoulaye Wade and Sall’s immediate predecessor, from running for the presidency. Wade was barred because he allegedly holds dual citizenship – his mother is French – a verdict he denounced as “scandalous.” Wade’s supporters in the legislative assembly called for parliamentary inquiry into alleged partiality of two judges on the constitutional court. Some members of Sall’s party were among those who voted on 30th January to approve Wade’s request for parliamentary probe. Wade is only one of about a dozen candidates the constitutional court barred from the presidential poll. Also barred is firebrand anti-establishment activist, Ousmane Sonko, who has been jailed since July 2023, but whose surrogate, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, is cleared to run. Sall, last year, ruled himself out of running for a controversial third term following violent protests that trailed Sonko’s court battles. He tipped Prime Minister Amadou Ba from his party as his would-be successor; but with the party split over his candidacy, Ba faces possible defeat at the ballot box. 

The president’s announcement delaying the poll triggered protests that pitched security forces against hundreds of people in Dakar, the capital, on whom they fired teargas in a bid to disperse massed crowds. Several leading opposition figures, including a presidential candidate in the postponed election, were arrested though later released. A private Tv station, Walf television network, was taken off air as it broadcast the protests live, and its licence was revoked. Sall’s government accused the station of inciting violence with its coverage of the protests. A more deadly blow to civil liberty was the temporary shutdown of mobile internet access in many areas of the country. The government minister in charge of communication said the step had to be taken to halt the spread of “hateful and subversive messages relayed on social networks in a context of threats of disturbances to public order.”

It has been a rocky road for some while for Senegal, a member of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) with reputable credentials in endurance of democracy. A presidential order in November 2023 set the presidential poll for 25th February, with Sall repeatedly saying he would hand over power in early April to the winner of the poll. That was before the postponement that opposition politicians described as a constitutional coup. The clampdown on protests ignited by the poll delay as well elicited criticisms from rights groups. Political stability in Senegal has been fragile since June 2023 when the authorities cut internet access after supporters of Ousmane Sonko clashed with security forces. 

“Macky Sall’s seeming attachment to office is ironic because he had projected himself as uniquely uninfected by the bug of self-perpetuation in power…”

President Sall had been due to leave office on 2nd April, following failed manoeuvres to extend his tenure beyond the constitutionally permitted limit. The bill he proposed to back the poll shift had suggested scheduling the election for 25th August and allowing him to remain in office until his successor is officially sworn in. But the legislative assembly’s vote on that bill, last Monday, pushed the election further away to 15th December and allowed Sall to hold fort until then. The vote proceedings inside parliament was as chaotic as protests staged by angry citizens outside the legislative chamber while the parliamentary vote held. Some opposition lawmakers who objected to the parliament’s vote were ejected from the chamber by police personnel in the course of the parliamentary debate. Agency reports also said while lawmakers debated the bill inside parliament, security forces teargassed thousands of Senegalese who gathered outside the parliament building to protest, with many of them arrested. Two opposition parties filed a court petition challenging the election postponement. Meanwhile, the hashtag #FreeSenegal is currently trending on X.

It was the first time since 1963 independence from France that presidential vote was being postponed in Senegal, one of the few African countries never to have experienced military intervention in power in a region plagued by coups. The troubles in the country are happening at a time the sub-region is faced with growing threats to democracy. Only recently, three countries led by juntas – Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso – announced their withdrawal from Ecowas over sanctions imposed by the regional bloc for military power grab in those states. That withdrawal is being discussed by Ecowas and the countries as we speak. Senegal that used to be hailed for its stability now faces a crisis of democratic transition rocking the foundation of its nationhood; the country has been under a spectre of civil strife since the legal battles of Ousmane Sonko that many perceived to be a result of Sall’s intolerance of opposition. Agency reports said several dozens of protesters who gathered outside the parliament last Monday could be heard chanting “Macky Sall is a dictator” after they were dispersed by security forces. Many Senegalese also individually voiced their disappointment in Sall over the state of affairs in their country. But a spokesman of the president defended him and compared the situation in Senegal to the United States’ Watergate scandal, saying infighting between the constitutional court and the legislative assembly would have meant the legitimacy of Senegal’s next president, like that of former President Richard Nixon, would “inevitably be tainted by legitimate suspicion.” He stated in a message to The Washington Post: “President Macky Sall is to be congratulated on having taken his responsibilities to save our democracy from a Watergate. A statesman is more concerned about the next generation than the next election or curve of emotions.”

Reactions by international bodies to Senegal’s poll delay were warily dissuasive. Ecowas, of which the country is a member-state, issued a carefully worded statement in which it said it “takes note” of the decision to postpone the election and urges “dialogue and collaboration for transparent, inclusive and credible elections.” The  African Union expressed concern in a statement, calling for elections to be held “as soon as possible,” while the U.S. State Department said it acknowledged “allegations of irregularities, but (is) deeply concerned about the disruption to the presidential electoral calendar” and urged all participants in Senegal’s electoral process to engage peacefully in the important effort to swiftly set a new date and the conditions for a timely, free and fair election.

Macky Sall’s seeming attachment to office is ironic because he had projected himself as uniquely uninfected by the bug of self-perpetuation in power that afflicts many African rulers. Early in 2016, he proposed a two-year reduction in Senegalese presidential tenure – from seven years to five, beginning with himself. While making the term reduction proposal, Sall was reported to have said: “Have you ever seen presidents reduce their mandate? Well, I’m going to do it. We have to understand, in Africa too, that we are able to offer an example, and that power is not an end in itself.” Now, he too appears to have caught the power bug, or has he?