Senegal Blocks Internet Services Over Protests Against Shift in Presidential Election
The government of Senegal on Tuesday suspended internet services in parts of the hitherto peaceful West African nation as part of its strategy to dismantle planned protests against the delay in the country’s presidential election.
The suspension of internet comes amid the cancellation of an earlier scheduled protest against President Macky Sall’s postponement of the country’s scheduled presidential election from February 25 to December 15, 2024.
Senegal has seen resurgence of violence in the last few weeks as the civil society groups rose in defence of the country’s constitution which has seen unusual affront from President Sall according to rights activists.
AFP quoted Malick Diop, a member of the coalition of religious and civil society groups who had planned the Tuesday protest as in the country’s capital Dakar as saying, “We will postpone the march because we want to remain within the law.”
“The march was banned. There’s a problem with the route. So we will change this.”
President Sall who is due to leave office on April 2, 2024 after serving two tenures, haven taken office in 2012 postponed the election citing need for political gladiators and interest groups in the country to “dialogue” in the interest of unity.
However, President Sall has been described as the architect of the escalating violence and shrinking civic space in the West African country.
In the last four years, President Sall has arrested and jailed more than 800 opposition figures, including his biggest political opponent, Ousmane Sonko, who has been imprisoned on the count of “defamation” of a minister.
Just before the commencement of the electioneering campaigns in the country, the electoral authorities in Senegal disqualified yet another opposition candidate, Karim Wade, the son of a former president and candidate of the Senegalese Democratic Party, on the count that he holds dual citizenship.
Also when the President approached the parliament to ratify the postponement of the election, opposition lawmakers vehemently rejected the proposal and while the arguments were still ongoing military forces on the orders of President Sall invaded the parliament building and bundled away all the opposing lawmakers paving way for the approval of the election shift by pro-Sall lawmakers.
International organisations have expressed worry over the deteriorating security situation in the country. May have also expressed concerns over the possibility of military intervention in the country that used to be the most democratically stable nation in West Africa.
Senegal is a member of the prostrate Economic Committee of West African States (ECOWAS) which has been hit by military coups in the last three years. Lately, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali pulled out of the regional bloc citing irreconcilable differences and accusing the organisation of abandoning its original principles to protect the interest of the people of the region.
President Bola Tinubu is the current Chairman of ECOWAS