West Africa's regional bloc, ECOWAS, has expressed concern over the postponement of Senegal's presidential elections earlier scheduled for February 25.
Senegalese President Macky Sall announced the indefinite postponement of the elections on Saturday in a national address, just hours before official campaigning was due to start.
Sall said he signed a decree abolishing a previous measure that set the date as lawmakers investigate two Constitutional Council judges whose integrity in the election process has been questioned.
However, in its reaction to the development, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, expressed concern over the circumstances that led to the postponement and urged ''competent authorities to expedite the various processes in order to set a new date for the elections.''
The West African region has seen growing political crises since 2020 with several military coups and deep divisions.
Key contenders excluded
ECOWAS has been struggling to resolve such crises with Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger announcing their exit from the bloc last week. The three countries, which are under military rule following coups, have accused ECOWAS of unfair treatment.
The postponement of the elections in Senegal has raised concern over the country's tense political atmosphere. But ECOWAS has urged politicians to pursue dialogue in resolving the situation.
This is the first time a Senegalese presidential election has been postponed.
The Constitutional Council has excluded dozens of candidates from the vote, including opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and Karim Wade, son of former president Abdoulaye Wade. This has fuelled growing discontent about the election process.
No third term
The excluded candidates say the rules for candidacy were not applied fairly. The authorities deny this. But president Sall said an investigation would be carried out into the circumstances of the exclusion.
"These troubled conditions could seriously undermine the credibility of the ballot by sowing the seeds of pre- and post-electoral disputes," President Sall said in his address.
A November 2023 decree signed by Sall fixed the election for February 25, with 20 candidates in the running but without the two major opposition figures.
Sall had repeatedly said he would hand over power in early April to the winner of the vote.
After announcing he would not run for a third term as president, Sall designated Prime Minister Amadou Ba from his party as his would-be successor.
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