In Senegal, citizens are still waiting for a new date for the presidential election, which was initially scheduled for Sunday, February 25. After the referendum was postponed and ultimately invalidated by the Constituent Assembly, President Macky Sall on Monday afternoon launched a national dialogue to find a way out of the crisis. It was in Diamniadio, thirty kilometers from Dakar, that the opening ceremony of the dialogue took place and Mackey Sall made the first announcements.
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With our special correspondent Diamniadio, Thea Olivier
Around 7:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. UT), the president Mackey Sal He had just finished his opening speech. The amnesty plan proposed on Wednesday is the big announcement, regarding facts related to political demonstrations occurring between 2021 and 2024. Its goal is to stabilize the Senegalese political space.
In his speech, the head of state also mentioned that the purpose of the dialogue was to find a date for the polls as soon as possible, i.e. before the rainy season which starts between June and July.
After a private audience earlier in the morning, the cast marched onto the stage. Successful or unsuccessful presidential candidates, political parties, civil society, religious and customary leaders all defended their positions regarding the resumption of the electoral process and the date of voting.
But there are also large absentees: 17 of the 19 candidates chosen by the Constitutional Council, including Abdülé Wade's former prime minister Idrissa Cek, boycotted the dialogue. Sixteen of them appealed to the Constituent Assembly earlier in the morning to press for a referendum to be held before April 2, the date that would mark the end of President Mackie Sal's decree.
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