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Incumbent Macky Sall has announced that he will not run for a third term in next year’s Senegalese presidential election, simmering tensions and ending months of speculation.
In a widely anticipated speech Monday night, Sall said his decision not to run was a “long and carefully considered” one.
“It is my decision not to be a candidate in the 2024 presidential election, even though the constitution allows me to run,” Sall said. “Senegal is beyond my personality and is full of leaders who can manage it.”
For months, many speculated about whether Sale, 61, would seek another term in office. Analysts and critics said such a move would have threatened the integrity of the West African country’s constitution, which limits presidents to two terms.
Protests and riots have broken out in recent months, with uncertainty about Sall’s intentions and crackdowns against supporters of opposition leader Osman Sonko fueling tensions. Senegal is usually one of the thriving democracies in the region.
Sale was first elected in 2012 when he defeated Abdullah Wade, an incumbent who was running for a controversial third term. In 2016, voters also approved a constitutional change proposed by Sall to shorten the term from seven to five years.
Sall served seven years in his first term and was re-elected in 2019. His allies last year began to argue that the 2016 referendum reset the time on his time in office and made him eligible to run again next year.
Asked He indicated that he could run again “From a legal point of view, the debate has been settled for a long time,” he told the French magazine L’Express in March. But he admitted there was a “political debate” about whether he should run.
On Sunday Sonko, a controversialist widely seen as the coalition’s biggest rival for the ruling Republican Party, called for protests if Sall decided to run.
He said: “Go out to confront Macky Sall’s regime and say that it is not up to him to choose the candidates who will face each other in the next presidential elections.”
Sonko added, “If we have to fight a fight, it has to be final. I am calling on all the Senegalese people to stand up as one and come out in droves and put an end to this criminal regime this time.”
Sal’s decision leaves his party searching for a candidate, with Sonko potentially facing whoever comes out.
However, Sonko’s status as a candidate is in doubt after he was sentenced last month to two years in prison for “corrupting the youth”. He was acquitted of more serious charges of rape and of making death threats against an employee of a massage company he accused of assaulting.
The 48-year-old former tax inspector has not been arrested, but the conviction complicates his bid to run because election law bars those with criminal convictions from seeking political office.
Sonko also appealed against a $330,000 fine and a suspended six-month jail sentence after being found guilty in March of defamation charges against the tourism minister.
Sonko and his supporters say his legal troubles are weaponizing the justice system to marginalize him.
At least 16 people have been killed in the protests that began after Sonko’s conviction. Rights groups have accused the security forces of a violent crackdown. At least 12 people also died during protests that lasted several days after Sonko was first arrested in connection with the case in 2021.