By Ngouda Dione
DAKAR (Reuters) – Senegal’s national dialogue commission will propose a delayed presidential election be held on June 2 and recommend President Macky Sall remain in office until his successor is sworn in, commission member and presidential adviser Ndiawar Paye said on Tuesday.
The recommendations will be sent to Sall who will make the final decision, Paye told Reuters by phone.
The proposals follow two days of dialogue organised by Sall as a way to ease tensions and agree a way out of a nearly month-long political crisis. His and parliament’s failed bid to postpone the Feb. 25 poll by ten months has sparked unrest and warnings of democratic backsliding.
The talks in the capital Dakar were boycotted by many of the opposition some of whom want the vote to be held before Sall’s mandate expires on April 2.
It was not immediately clear how they will respond to the proposed date of June 2. Their successful legal challenge of the original postponement led the top constitutional authority to rule the delay unlawful and ask Sall to find a new date as soon as possible.
(Reporting by Ngouda Dione; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; editing by David Evans)
