Three Senegalese opposition lawmakers were arrested on Tuesday amid the fallout from parliament’s move to delay a presidential vote by 10 months that prompted West Africa’s economic and political bloc to call for the re-establishment of the electoral calendar.
Lawmakers late on Monday approved a last-minute amendment to hold the vote on Dec.15, instead of Feb. 25, sealing an extension of President Macky Sall’s mandate that has sparked street protests and international alarm.
The spokesperson for dissolved opposition party Pastef, El Malick Ndiaye, said via message that three lawmakers from the opposition coalition Yewwi Askan Wi had been arrested over the course of the Tuesday. A former police captain was also detained, he said.
One of those arrested, Guy Marius Sagna, was among the MPs who tried to physically block Monday’s vote from happening in parliament by blocking the dais.
“Senegal has definitively sunk into dictatorship,” Ndiaye said.
The police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The surprise postponement has dismayed those who thought Senegal would stick to a standard electoral course – something that has become increasingly uncommon in West Africa, where ECOWAS is grappling with the fallout from a string of military takeovers in other countries in recent years.
The U.S. Department of State on Tuesday expressed deep concern with the postponement of the election, saying the move ran “contrary to Senegal’s strong democratic tradition.”
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) did not refer directly to the new election date, but it suggested in a statement that the bloc views the postponement as unconstitutional.
“The ECOWAS Commission encourages the political class to urgently take the necessary measures to re-establish the electoral calendar in accordance with the provisions of the constitution,” it said.
Sall, who is not standing in the vote and has reached the constitutional limit of two terms in power, has said the day was necessary due to a dispute over the candidate list and alleged corruption within the constitutional body that handled the list.
