Sanction Senegal for illegal postponement of elections, Falana tells ECOWAS

Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, SAN has called on the leadership of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States to immediately reply to the deteriorating human rights and rule of law crisis in Senegal.

Falana urged the ECOWAS leadership to consider imposing some sanctions on Senegal for violating the democratic rights of its citizens by postponing the presidential election.

President Macky Sall had on Saturday announced the indefinite postponement of the presidential election, which was originally set to take place on February 25, just hours before official campaigning was due to start.

AFP reports that it is the first time a Senegalese presidential election has been postponed.

The decision comes after a disagreement between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court regarding the rejection of candidates.

Falana, in a 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.”

He added that imposing targeted sanctions on Sall and officials of his government is consistent with the provisions of ECOWAS treaties and protocols including article 45 (2) of the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance.

The legal luminary recalled that in July 2023, Sall dropped his ambition to run for a third term in this year’s election, ending years of uncertainty over his political future that helped fuel deadly opposition protests.

According to Falana, “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 further described the postponement of the elections as a constitutional coup, adding that a major threat to the rule of law and constitutional government not only in Senegal but also across the subregion, especially given the planned exit of Burkina-Faso, Niger and Mali from the ECOWAS.

“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 15 December 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 on to power against the will of the people and popular aspirations.

“The postponement of the elections also clearly constitutes a fundamental breach of the Constitution of Senegal. Given the fact that the Constitution is the result of popular participation, a will of the people, grossly violating the Constitution represents both a breach of the covenant between the Senegalese government and the people of the country,” he added.

Falana noted that Sall has clearly shown his reluctance to implement and uphold the Constitution of Senegal and democratic and rule of law principles, something to which the ECOWAS is expressly committed,  by arbitrarily postponing the elections

He, however, urged ECOWAS leaders to “act now to compel full and effective compliance with its treaties and protocols and to serve as a deterrent to other ECOWAS member states.”

Recall that mobile internet in Senegal was temporarily cut by the government following protests against Sall’s decision to postpone the presidential election.

As reported by the BBC, Communication Minister Moussa Bocar Thiam stressed the necessity of taking action to prevent the dissemination of “hateful and subversive messages relayed on social networks in a context of threats of disturbances to public order.”