Senegal: govt sets new date for delayed presidential vote for 24 March

Senegal’s delayed presidential election will be held on 24 March, the country’s President Macky Sall has announced, following weeks of political turmoil and violent protests calling for an immediate vote.
Senegalese voters should finally head to the polls at the end of March, following a string of announcements by the president and government on Wednesday, after a top court ruled that a proposal to hold the vote after Sall’s mandate expires on 2 April was unconstitutional. But there is still some confusion on the precise date of the first-round vote: while the incumbent president set 24 March as the date, Senegal’s top constitutional body ruled it should take place on 31 March. Sall has also dissolved the government, replacing Prime Minister Amadou Ba with Interior Minister Sidiki Kaba.
It is the latest twist in the West African nation that has for weeks been convulsed in violent unrest following Sall’s last-minute decision to delay elections originally set for 25 February till December. The crisis had prompted warnings from the country’s international allies that its reputation as one of coup-hit West Africa’s more stable democracies is under threat. The regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc also held an emergency meeting in an attempt to calm widespread violence. Senegal experienced several waves of deadly unrest between 2021 and 2023, triggered in particular by a bitter stand-off between now-imprisoned opposition figure Ousmane Sonko and the state.