Femi Falana, a human rights activist has called on the Economic Community of West African Countries, ECOWAS, to sanction President Macky Sall of Senegal for postponing the presidential election.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, said all Senegalese government officials involved in the shift of the presidential poll should be sanctioned too.
President Sall had shifted the election amidst various human right violations by his government, including the arrest and harassment of opposition leaders, Ousmane Sonko in the west African country.
The election was billed originally billed for February 25, and campaign were billed to start in few days before the government announced the shift.
It’s the fist time that the presidential election was postponed in the country where democratic government has endured despite some frictions among various parties trying to take power.
The shift has caused a division in the country after the National Assembly postponed the election for 10 months.
In a statement on Wednesday, Falana said Sally and other government officials need to be sanctioned by ECOWAS for trying to truncate democracy in the now very volatile country, adding that the sudden postponement was a constitutional coup by President Sally, stressing that the action is inconsistent with the provisions of ECOWAS treaties and protocols including Article 45 (2) of the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance signed by Senegal.
Part of the 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.
“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.
“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.”
Not a few watching what is happening in the country insist that the postponement could lead to instability and the prospect of a forced unconstitutional change of government, similar to what happened in Niger recently and some other neighbouring West African countries as a result of leaders trying to sit-tight in power.
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