Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana (SAN), has called on the Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, to immediately reply to the deteriorating human rights and rule of law crisis in Senegal.
Falana urged the ECOWAS leadership to consider imposing some sanctions on Senegal for violating the democratic rights of its citizens by postponing the presidential election.
President Macky Sall had on Saturday announced the indefinite postponement of the presidential election, which was originally set to take place on February 25, just hours before official campaigning was due to start.
AFP reports that it was the first time a Senegalese presidential election would be postponed.
The decision comes after a disagreement between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court regarding the rejection of candidates.
Falana, in a statement, said, “The ECOWAS leaders should consider imposing targeted sanctions, including imposing travel bans, asset freezes and other targeted sanctions on Mr Sall and officials of his government responsible for serious violations of the democratic rights of the people of Senegal.”
He added that imposing targeted sanctions on Sall and officials of his government was consistent with the provisions of ECOWAS treaties and protocols including Article 45 (2) of the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance.
The legal luminary recalled that in July 2023, Sall dropped his ambition to run for a third term in this year’s election, ending years of uncertainty over his political future that helped fuel deadly opposition protests.
“Since then, he (Sall) has been manipulating the democratic process to install his surrogate.
The illegal postponement of the elections is due to President Sacky Mall’s fear that his chosen candidate would be rejected in the polls by the Senegalese people,” Falana said.
He described the postponement of the election as a constitutional coup and a major threat to the rule of law and constitutional government not only in Senegal but also across the subregion, especially given the planned exit of Burkina-Faso, Niger and Mali from the ECOWAS.
“The postponement of the elections is also a fundamental breach of the Lome Declaration and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance which Senegal has signed.
Senegal signed the charter on December 15, 2008, and as such, the government has a good faith obligation to comply with the provisions of the charter.
“The postponement of the elections suggests a deliberate ploy by Mr Sall to manipulate the country’s constitution in order to hold onto power against the will of the people and popular aspirations.”
Nigerianewsabroad reports that following protests against Sall’s decision to postpone the presidential election, the Senegalese government temporarily cut the nation’s mobile internet.
As reported by the BBC, Communication Minister Moussa Bocar Thiam stressed the necessity of taking action to prevent the dissemination of “hateful and subversive messages relayed on social networks in a context of threats of disturbances to public order.”
