Macky Sall, the President of Senegal since 2012 has announced that the upcoming Senegalese presidential election would be postponed indefinitely. Douglas Yates, professor of Political Science at the American Graduate School in Paris gives us context to what this means for the nation's future. 

Dakar

Senegalese President delays election indefinitely

Douglas, you're a professor of political science at the American Graduate School. Now this is obviously a surprise turn in the country that's long been seen as one of Africa's most solid democracies. Right. This is perhaps Africa's most solid democracy. It's a country, it's never had a coup d'etat. It's in West Africa, a region that's lousy with coup d'etats right now, six coup d'etats in the last few years. There's no threat at all of a coup d'etat in Senegal. It has three peaceful transitions of power, 1982 to Abdou Jouf, 2000 to Abdoulaye Wad, 2012 to Macky Sall. Each of those transitions, those terms came to an end with the original sin, which is once a president comes to power, usually as a clean person trying to fight corruption, they slowly get corrupted by power. And at the end, Macky Sall, who had come in as a reformer, someone who wanted to clean up Senegalese politics from the dynastic ambitions of Abdoulaye Wad, which is why Karim Wad has been excluded, he himself had the temptation to present himself for a third term, and that destroyed his camp's chance. And ever since then, we've had the opposition on the rise. And now he's been trying to clean up the mess that he created. He should have designated a successor two years ago. So what exactly is going on in Macky Sall's head? Can you explain to us? Because he says he doesn't want a third term, yet the votes where his successor will be picked has now been postponed indefinitely. This has always been the temptation. Leopold Siddar Sengar came into power in 1960, and he wouldn't let go. He finally prepared a succession 22 years later, the temptation of power. Same with Abdoulaye Wad. A man had been in prison. He lived here in exile in France. He came to power with popular support, and at the end, he wanted to hand power to his son. And Macky Sall has this same temptation. I think what's going through his head is he would have liked to have been president longer. He realizes he can't, but he's afraid, because if his opponents come to power, they might do to him what he did to Wad. That is, investigate his corruption. He's an oil engineer, former minister of mines, who's presided over Senegal's entry into the oil curse of Africa. And there's substantial reasons to believe that he may have been involved in corruption. And with his main opponent, the man who would probably win, Ousmane Sanko, if he was allowed to present himself, a tax inspector who wrote a book about oil corruption, it's possible Macky Sall's thinking, I can't let this guy in.

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Sulphur

At least four dead in Oklahoma tornadoes

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Oklahoma

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Wakeley

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Canberra

Protest leaders hit out at Prime Minister over power 'abuse'

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Tel Aviv-Yafo

Israel-Gaza War

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Donetsk

Ukraine Invasion

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Shanghai

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Rafah

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Lviv

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Thousands block Tel Aviv streets in protest

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Canton

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Jerusalem

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Windsor

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Council of the City of Sydney

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Baku

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London

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Paris

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Nairobi

Climate Crisis

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New York

U.S. Presidential Election

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Marsden Park

Mourners farewell Bondi security guard Faraz Tahir

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Washington

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Port-au-Prince

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Beirut

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