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fullscreen Senegalese President Macky Sall. Archive image. Photo: Lewis Joly/AP/TT
Senegalese President Macky Sall announces that the elections that were to be held on February 25 have been postponed indefinitely. The alarming announcement is being made in a part of Africa where the military in several neighboring countries has overthrown democratically elected governments in coups.
The announcement by the president came in a speech to the nation, where he simultaneously signed a decree canceling the decision on the date of the election.
Sall’s outburst came just hours before the election campaign was to officially begin. The president referred to the fact that two judges in the country’s constitutional council have been questioned.
Senegal’s government has previously proposed that the presidential election be postponed by at least six months. Rumors have abounded that members of the president’s party fear that Sall will lose the election. A constitutional council has approved around 20 candidates for the planned election, but the council has at the same time banned several people from running.
Macky Sall has been president of the country of around 16 million inhabitants since 2012.