Nigeria's former FM Gambari to lead ECOWAS election monitors to Senegal
Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Former Nigerian Foreign Minister and UN Under-Secretary-General, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, will lead a 120-member ECOWAS Election Observation Mission (EOM) to Senegal’s postponed presidential election scheduled for 24 March.
The Mission includes 14 Long-Term Observers (LTOs), who are experts in various fields, such as constitutional and electoral laws, election operations, conflict management and prevention, political analysis, gender and inclusivity, and the media, a statement issued by ECOWAS on Tuesday said.
They are being deployed this week and will be joined by 106 of their Short-Term colleagues from 18 March ahead of the crucial election featuring 19 presidential candidates.
The short-term observers are drawn from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Electoral Commissions of the ECOWAS Member States, the ECOWAS Council of the Wise, the ECOWAS Parliament and Community Court of Justice, and Civil Society organizations in the region.
The press release said the EOM, which will support and monitor the electoral process to ensure best practices, will be supported by an ECOWAS Technical Team led by Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, and Mr. Serigne Ka, acting Head of the ECOWAS Electoral Assistance Division (EAD).
Senegal's President Macky Sall announced last week that the West African country would hold the postponed presidential election on 24 March.
Campaign for the vote would be from 9-22 March, according to a decree signed by President Sall.
The official Senegalese Press Agency (APS) reported that he told the Council of Ministers meeting that he had selected the date for the first round of the election after the Constitutional Council had ruled that holding the vote after 2 April, the date marking the end of his second term, was contrary to the Constitution.
The election was scheduled for 25 February, but President Sall issued a decree postponing it citing suspicions of corruption concerning some magistrates who examined the applications of 93 people to contest the vote.
Parliament then voted to delay the election until 15 December in a chaotic session during which security forces removed opposition lawmakers. The Constitutional Court declared Parliament's vote unconstitutional.
APS quoted a press statement from the Cabinet as saying President Sall announced the date after he had been informed of the opinion of the Constitutional Council regarding the conclusions, recommendations and proposals of the National Dialogue he had called relating to the setting of the date of the election, the possible examination of candidacies, and arrangements upon the expiration of President Sall's mandate.
The Constitutional Council, in its decision, ruled that President Sall "cannot remain in office beyond April 2".
The Constitutional Council also maintained the list of 19 candidates already selected to participate in the election.
The National Dialogue convened by President Sall had proposed 2 June for the election but the Constitutional Council said that date, which is two months after the expiration of his current and last mandate "has no legal basis either in the electoral law ... and that the resumption of the electoral process already underway does not justify such a postponement".
"The President of the Republic cannot, in the absence of a text expressly authorising him to do so, set the date of the election beyond the end of his mandate," it ruled, stressing that this would create an institutional vacuum not provided for by the Constitution.
Many groups boycotted the National Dialogue, which sat behind closed doors to propose a new date for the election and determine what happens after 2 April, when the president's second and final term ends.
President Sall has repeatedly said he would leave office at the end of his mandate on 2 April, saying he has refused "to be tempted by a third term".
Following the decree postponing the election, demonstrations broke out in the capital, Dakar, as well as Mbour, Mbacké, Tivaoune, Touba, Saint-Louis, and Ziguinchor, with security forces apparently using excessive force to disperse protesters. The internet was cut off for several days. At least three people died in the protests.
There was international condemnation of President Sall's decision and a flurry of diplomatic activities to ease tension in the country with the President pledging to abide by the verdict of the Constitutional Council.
Meanwhile, President Sall has dissolved the government and appointed Sidki Kaba as Prime Minister, replacing Amadou Ba. Sidki Kaba was Minister of the Interior and Public Security in the dissolved government.
Amadou Ba is the candidate of the ruling coalition, Benno Bokk Yaakaar, in the 24 March vote.
Parliament has also adopted a bill providing a general amnesty for acts of violence linked to politics, occurring between February 2021 and February 2024.
-0- PANA MA 12March2024
