Senegal election: What next after block on President Macky Sall's bid to delay poll? - BBC News

A court blocks the president's plan to delay elections, but this doesn't mean the political crisis is over.

12 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, AFPImage caption, The president's plans to delay the election have sparked widespread protestsBy Mayeni JonesBBC West Africa correspondentAfter more than two weeks of uncertainty, it seems Senegal's checks and balances have kicked in.

President Macky Sall has pledged to organise presidential elections "as soon as possible" after the country's top court, the Constitutional Council, blocked his plans to postpone this month's polls until mid-December.

When Mr Sall initially announced the delay of the election on 3 February - just a few hours before campaigning was due to start - he cited alleged corruption within the Constitutional Council as one of the reasons elections couldn't be held on 25 February, as scheduled.

Mr Sall's party - along with that of one his main opponents, Karim Wade - had levelled accusations of corruption against the Constitutional Court a few days before. They were responding to the exclusion of Mr Wade from the electoral list on the basis that he had dual French and Senegalese nationality when he announced his candidacy, something Mr Wade denies.

Some have argued that the current political uncertainty in Senegal started with the Constitutional Council's decision to exclude Mr Wade, and other opposition candidates, from the ballot.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-68318674

---