Some days ago the president, who is serving two consecutive terms, the maximum stipulated by the Constitution, provoked a national crisis by postponing the presidential elections based on alleged disputes with the lists of candidates and the double citizenship, Senegalese and French, of some of them.

Despite having the support of the Legislative Branch, controlled by the coalition that brought him to power, Sall ran into an insurmountable stumbling block when the Constitutional Court declared illegal the decision that would have allowed him to remain in the Executive chair for another 10 months.

After the ruling, the members of the National Assembly (unicameral parliament) proposed to convene the elections next December, but in his speech last night the president warned that the country cannot remain almost nine months without a president.

He added that the dialogue with the political actors scheduled for next week will have to decide what is ‘in the best interest of the nation (and) after the talks, the Constitutional Council will be in a position to clarify things’.

The pause in the crisis cools tempers in the French-speaking West African country where three people were killed and an undetermined but high number injured during protests against the postponement of the polls.

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