Sharjah24 - AFP: Just hours before official campaigning was due to start on Sunday, Senegal's President Macky Sall announced the indefinite postponement of a presidential election scheduled for February 25, provoking anger from opposition figures and a ministerial resignation.
In an address to the nation Saturday, Sall said he had postponed the vote that would have decided his successor because of a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court over the rejection of candidates.
Lawmakers are investigating two Constitutional Council judges whose integrity in the election process has been questioned.
"I will begin an open national dialogue to bring together the conditions for a free, transparent and inclusive election," Sall added, without giving a new date.
Under the country's election code, at least 80 days must pass between the publication of the decree setting the date and the election, so the earliest a vote could now be held is late April.
Just hours after Sall's announcement, Abdou Latif Coulibaly, the secretary general of the government who has acted as its spokesman, announced his resignation.
He was quitting because he wanted to have "full and complete freedom" to defend his political convictions, Coulibaly said in a statement.
This is the first time a Senegalese presidential election has been postponed and adds to the growing political tension in the country.
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