« MDear compatriots, my long and carefully considered decision is not to be a candidate for the next election of February 25, 2024, even if the Constitution gives me the right to do so. It is with these words that Senegalese President Macky Sall announced on Monday that he will not be a candidate for a third term in the February 2024 presidential election. This decision came at a time when Senegal is experiencing strong tensions.
A well-considered decision
“Senegal exceeds my person and it is full of leaders capable of taking over the reins… I wrote that the 2019 term was my last term. I have a code of honor and dignity which commands me to respect my word of honor. I want to preserve Senegal’s image of democracy… I will continue to defend it with all my strength… and will remain at your side. Be aware of hidden enemy activism. Let’s stay true to our motto: “One people, one goal, one faith”, “said the Senegalese president in particular.
“We have speculated so much, commented on my candidacy for this election […] My priorities focused above all on the management of a country, of a coherent government team, and committed to action for emergence, especially in a difficult and uncertain socio-economic context,” he added. “I have a clear awareness and memory of what I have said, written and repeated, here and elsewhere, that is to say that the 2019 term was my second and last term,” he said. underline. “I have a code of honor and a sense of historical responsibility that commands me to preserve my dignity and my word. »
After having been a leader of the movement against the candidacy for a third term of his predecessor, Abdoulaye Wade, in power from 2000 to 2012, and having repeatedly maintained that he would only serve two terms, President Sall had for several years refused months to dispel the doubt on its intentions and had not placed any dolphin on the front of the stage.
This decision, in a region marked by repeated coups d’etat, somewhat restores the recently damaged reputation of Senegalese democracy, while Macky Sall’s opponents had for months attributed to him the intention of presenting himself to a third mandate, illegal in their eyes.
The violence that took place in the country condemned
He strongly condemned the violence that followed the two-year prison sentence of his main opponent, Ousmane Sonko, in a sex scandal. It makes it in the current state ineligible. At the beginning of June, it caused the most serious unrest in years in Senegal, killing 16 people according to the authorities, 24 according to Amnesty International and around 30 according to the opposition. “The disastrous objective of the instigators, perpetrators and accomplices of this unprecedented violence was clear: to sow terror, to bring our country to a halt and to destabilize it. It is a real organized crime against the Senegalese nation, against the State, against the Republic and its institutions,” said President Sall in his speech.
In the sights of President Sall, we guess Ousmane Sonko, president of Pastef and considered his main opponent. The latter enjoys great popularity with young people and has not ceased, for his part, to shout at the plot of power – which refutes him – to exclude him from the presidential election of February 2024. He is blocked by the security forces at his home in Dakar, “sequestered”, according to him, since May 28. In a video on Sunday evening on social networks, the opponent called on the Senegalese to demonstrate “massively” in the coming days, whether Macky Sall shows up or not. According to the opponent, if the president does not show up, it would be to better eliminate him. In case of arrest and if he is not released within two hours, “I call on all the Senegalese people to stand up as one man and come out massively and this time to put an end to this criminal regime “, he said.
Macky Sall not a candidate but in the electoral fight for the presidential election of 2024
“If we have to fight a fight, it has to be final. I call for a national leap forward. The days and weeks to come will be crucial” and “difficult”, said Macky Sall. Saturday, in front of local elected officials who had made a petition to support him, Mr. Sall called on his political family to unite and to place “the general interest” and “the interest of the coalition” before any other consideration. “My fight and my greatest pride are really to lead you to victory and to pursue our economic policy for the benefit of our people,” he said, stressing that the roadmap to make Senegal an emerging country in 2035 was already “marked out”.
The reaction of Sonko’s party
Reacting to Macky Sall’s decision not to run for a third term, MP Alioune Sall of Pastef, Ousmane Sonko’s party, said the president has only respected the Constitution and does not deserve he is praised for having respected the rules of which he is the guarantor as head of state.
#Senegal/Alioune Sall, coordinator of Pastef France: #Macky Sall “doesn’t deserve” praise.
Opponent Ousmane Sonko’s party reacts to Macky Sall’s decision not to be a presidential candidate in 2024. pic.twitter.com/N8Yn0p9DIr
– The Africa TV5MONDE newspaper (@JTAtv5monde) July 3, 2023
Other local and international reactions
First head of government under the magistracy of Macky Sall, Abdoul Mbaye expressed his emotion to find the Macky Sall of 2012 who had fought against the third mandate of Abdoulaye Wade.
I must confess my great emotion. This discourse allows me to find a large part of the #MackySall of April 2012. Respect for his call for unity and peace! They must now be built and consolidated by preparing for the 2024 election as well as possible.
Long live Senegal!– Abdoul MBAYE (@ AbdoulMBAYE2019) July 3, 2023
For Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Senegal under the presidency of Abdoulaye Wade, Macky Sall “honored his word and his country”. His non-candidacy in 2024 is “a nice surprise from the leader who will raise the chin of all Africans of our generation and friends of Senegal”.
Warm congratulations to the PR @Macky_Sall . He honored his word and his country. His non-candidacy in 2024 is “a nice surprise from the Chef” which will raise the chin of all Africans of our generation and friends of Senegal. Macky Sall honored us, may God honor him. pic.twitter.com/GpvCpeFyPQ
– Dr Cheikh Tidiane Gadio (@CheikhGadio) July 3, 2023
A notorious opponent of Macky Sall, whom he has constantly castigated in editorials, talks and broadcasts around his press organ Dakar-Morningjournalist Pape Alé Niang, who recently went to prison for statements concerning information on the Adji Sarr affair, a scandal through which Ousmane Sonko is about to lose the possibility of participating in the presidential election, salutes his way President Macky Sall’s decision.
President Macky Sall has just made the wise decision not to run for a third term. He did not listen to the sycophants and other acrobats birds of bad omen. Senegal would fall into chaos for months if he had followed them.Sant yalla pic.twitter.com/uL3Lyt9hII
— Pape Alé Niang (@papealeniang) July 3, 2023
For Seydi Gassama, coordinator of Amnesty in Senegal, “reforms still need to be initiated to guarantee the independence of justice and the protection of human rights and to organize an inclusive presidential election in 2024”. In other words, this decision is only a step, certainly important, on the way to the last gasps of Senegalese democracy.
Le PR @Macky_Sall knew how to resist the temptation of the 3rd mandate which would plunge the country into instability. He still has to initiate reforms to guarantee the independence of justice and the protection of human rights and organize an inclusive presidential election in 2024.
– Seydi Gassama (@SeydiGassama) July 3, 2023
Internationally, the first personality to hail Macky Sall’s decision is the former president of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou. For him, “Macky Sall has just shown great political intelligence. Thus, Senegal remains one of the torchbearers whose flame lights up our continent”.
President @Macky_Sall has just shown great political intelligence. Thus, Senegal remains one of the torchbearers whose flame lights up our continent.
– Issoufou Mahamadou (@IssoufouMhm) July 3, 2023
President of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki “welcomes the wise and salutary decision of (his) brother”.
1/2: I salute the wise and salutary decision of my brother, the president @Macky_Sallnot to be a candidate for the presidential election of 2024.
– Moussa Faki Mahamat (@AUC_MoussaFaki) July 3, 2023
Charles Michel, President of the European Council, went there with strong words to greet Macky Sall. ” YOU […] and defend a strong and respected Africa. Thank you for the excellent cooperation,” he said.
I welcome the announcement of @Macky_Sall. You work for the ���� and defend a strong and respected Africa. Thanks for the excellent cooperation. The African Union at the G20, just climate transition and development financing reform: so many challenges that we are taking up together.
— Charles Michel (@CharlesMichel) July 3, 2023
A decision that reshuffles many cards
Without being exhaustive, these reactions show that President Macky Sall’s decision has an important impact for Senegal, for Africa and for the way democracy is perceived and experienced on the continent.
Now that Macky Sall has decided not to run for a third term, the games are now open. His party, the Alliance for the Republic, the coalition that accompanied him to power, Benno Bokk Yakaar, and the allied parties will have to organize themselves to go into battle and try to seduce the Senegalese. His political opponents, at the forefront of which are Ousmane Sonko and his Pastef party, will have to find a new rallying point to consolidate the votes they hope for, it being understood that the fate of Ousmane Sonko himself is uncertain. Between the two, there is what the National Assembly will do with the results of the National Dialogue, one of the recommendations of which is to modify the Constitution in order to allow a return to the electoral game of Khalifa Sall, the former mayor of Dakar, and Karim Wade, among other responsibilities, former Minister of Transport and International Cooperation.
The work sites to be managed do not stop there. Following the example of the lawyer Mame Adama Guèye, first coordinator of the Civil Forum, an organization very active during the National Conference which took place from June 2008 to May 2009 under the chairmanship of Amadou Makhtar Mbow, it is necessary to rethink the attributes of the office of President of the Republic. Speaking in the debate that followed President Macky Sall’s Declaration to the Nation, he returned to the conclusions of the National Conference and to this anomaly which makes the President a king. A reality that serves Senegalese democracy, according to him.
2023-07-04 09:10:15
#Macky #Sall #puts #Senegalese #democracy #orbit
