17 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
Around a hundred political and civil society organizations in Senegal have launched a coalition against the possibility that the president, Macky Sall, will run in the 2024 elections in search of a third term, which they consider unconstitutional.
Mamadou Mbodj, coordinator of this new coalition, Senegal F24, has indicated that it is made up of 112 “entities”. Its leaders include prominent opposition figure Ousmane Sonko and former Prime Minister Aminata Touré, as well as two of the main associations for the defense of Human Rights in Senegal.
“Senegal F24’s mission is to mobilize Senegalese citizens to achieve Sall’s respect for the Constitution and his word,” its leaders said in a statement, referring to the Senegalese president’s previous statements about not going to the polls for a third term.
Likewise, they have demanded the “suppression” of all articles of the electoral law and the “legal-political artifices” that “may be likely” to authorize Sall’s candidacy, as well as “the release of political detainees and the end of the prohibition of demonstrations” in order to create “optimal and agreed conditions for calm, inclusive and transparent elections”.
Sall stated at the beginning of April that he is “open to dialogue” to address the political crisis that the country is going through as a result of the last weeks of protests against the open trial against Sonko –sentenced to two months in prison for defamation against the minister of Tourism– and the possibility of him running for a third term in the 2024 elections.
The president also rejected complaints about the possibility of violating the two-term limit should he run for re-election, stressing that “in the legal sphere, the debate has been closed for a long time.” However, he specified that he has not yet decided whether he will run for the polls again.
The opposition has denounced on several occasions that the president plans to run for a third term. The Senegalese constitution limits the total number of terms to two and an attempt to extend his stay in power could lead to instability.
