The Senegalese President, Macky Sall, announced Monday evening in Dakar, in a message to the Nation that he will not be a candidate for a third term during the presidential election of February 2024, ending a suspense which lasted several months.
“My long and carefully considered decision is not to be a candidate in the next election of February 25, 2024,” said the Head of State in his message to the nation broadcast on public television RTS.
“After having listened to and received all the support for the third candidacy, my long and carefully considered decision is not to be a presidential candidate in February 2024 even if the revision of the 2016 constitution gives me the right to apply” , he explained .
“Senegal exceeds my person… I said in 2019 that my 2019 mandate is my last mandate. I respect the Senegalese and I remain worthy of what I said,” said the President of the Republic.
“Contrary therefore to rumors which attributed to me a new presidential ambition, I would like to say that I have a clear conscience and memory of what I have said, written and repeated here and elsewhere, that is to say that the term of 2019 was my second and last term. That’s what I said and that’s what I’m reaffirming tonight,” he said.
“It is not because I am not a candidate that I will not assume my position as president. I will ensure the good performance of the Presidential, as usual in the political history of our country”, assured Senegalese head of state, elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2019.
Last Saturday, in front of local elected officials who signed a petition pledging to support him, Macky Sall affirmed his intention to contribute to a victory for the presidential coalition Benno Bokk Yaakar during this election. “My fight and my greatest pride is really to lead you to victory and to pursue our economic policy for the benefit of our people,” he said. “The challenge of the moment is first of all to be united. United, there is no political force that can deal with BBY,” he said, urging his supporters to place “the general interest” and “the interest of the coalition” before any other consideration.
Returning also to the acts of violence that occurred at the beginning of June last after the conviction of the opponent Ousmane Sonko, declared presidential candidate of 2024, to two years in prison, Macky Sall underlined in his message to the Nation that the the State remained standing and the Senegalese people, attached to their living together, refused to fall into the trap of this insurrectional plot, at odds with democratic values and which aimed to seize power by violence and destroy our model of society. “.
“The authors, the sponsors, the accomplices will answer for their unspeakable acts before the courts. In the meantime, investigations are continuing. We will shed light on these events and on the occult forces that want to shake our country,” he insisted.
Elected in 2012, re-elected in 2019, Macky Sall had the Constitution revised in 2016. It stipulates that “no one can serve more than two consecutive terms”, but he explained that this did not concern him since he had served his first term. before the reform.