President Macky Sall announces amnesty law in the midst of presidential crisis
In Senegal, citizens are still waiting for a new date to be set for the presidential elections, which were initially scheduled to be held on Sunday, February 25. After postponing the vote, which was eventually annulled by the Constitutional Council, President Macky Sall launched the national dialogue on Monday afternoon to find a way out of the crisis. In Diamniadio, about thirty kilometers from Dakar, the opening ceremony of the dialogue took place and Macky Sall made the first announcements.
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With our special correspondent Diamniadio, Thea Olivier
At approximately 7:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. UTC), Pres Macy asked He had just finished his opening statement. The big announcement was the draft amnesty that will be proposed on Wednesday, and will relate to the facts regarding political demonstrations that will occur between 2021 and 2024. The goal is to calm the Senegalese political space.
The Head of State also explained in his speech that the goal of the dialogue is to find a date for voting as soon as possible, that is, before the rainy season, which begins between the months of June and July.
After the special audiences that took place earlier in the morning, the actors in attendance took the stage. Successful or unsuccessful candidates in the presidential elections, political parties, civil society, and religious and customary leaders defended their position regarding the resumption of the electoral process and the voting date.
But there are also a large number of absentees: 17 of the 19 candidates selected by the Constitutional Council have boycotted the dialogue, including Idrissa Seck, Abdoulaye Wade's former prime minister. Sixteen of them submitted an appeal to the Constitutional Council earlier in the morning to pressure the vote scheduled to take place before April 2, the date that marks the end of President Macky Sall's term.
Read alsoPresidential elections in Senegal: “The time lost must be taken into account to set a new date”
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