Senegal should hold presidential elections as soon as possible, the African Union said, days after the country's President Macky Sall delayed the February 25 vote to an unspecified date.
This is the first time Senegal has delayed a presidential election, and Sall's announcement on Saturday pitched the country into uncharted constitutional waters that some opposition and civil society groups said amounted to an "institutional coup".
Senegal should "organise the elections as soon as possible, in transparency, peace and national harmony," AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said in a statement late on Sunday.
"It (AU) strongly encourages all political and social forces to resolve any political dispute through civilised consultation, understanding and dialogue..," the statement added.
Clashes in Dakar
Senegal's lawmakers are due to debate on Monday a proposal to hold the vote on August 25 and keep Sall in power until his successor is installed, according to the text of a bill seen by Reuters.
Earlier on Sunday, clashes broke out in Dakar between security forces and demonstrators protesting against the postponement of the presidential election.
Police fired tear gas canisters to disperse hundreds of protestors led by opposition figures. The protestors responded by pelting stones, footage shared on social media showed.
Local media reports said several opposition figures opposed to the postponement of the presidential election, including former Prime Minister Aminata Toure, were arrested during Sunday’s protests.
Private TV suspended
Meanwhile, authorities have suspended the signal of a private television station on after accusing it of inciting violence.
The station affected by the Communication Ministry’s decision is Walf TV, the television broadcast service of the privately owned media group Wal Fadjri.
Ousseynou Dieng, the ministry’s communications director, said the decision was taken in consultation with the National Audiovisual Regulatory Council to order Walf TV to “temporarily cut off its signal for inciting violence.”
The move reportedly followed the station's broadcast of images of the protests in the capital Dakar on Sunday triggered by the postponement of presidential elections.
Wal Fadjri confirmed on social networks a definitive withdrawal of its license by the government after receiving a call from an official of the Communication Ministry.
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