15 Senegal candidates decry delay in setting new poll date

Fifteen candidates in Senegal's delayed presidential election have accused President Macky Sall of "ill will" and said they will take action to ensure a new poll date is swiftly established.

The announcement came as the civil society collective Aar Sunu Election (Protect Our Election) said it had organised a new rally for Saturday.

The collective is calling for an election to be held before April 2, when Sall's term officially runs out.

It says the vote -- originally scheduled for February 25 -- must be held by March 3 at the latest.

"An inexplicable slowness has been noted. Nothing has been done" despite developments over the past week, the 15 candidates said in a joint statement released late on Tuesday.

"Everything is moving at the pace of President Macky Sall's ill will," the statement added.

The 15 signatories include former Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall and imprisoned opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, whose name was added by proxy.

Faye is the second-in-command of anti-establishment firebrand Ousmane Sonko, who is also in prison.

Sall's last-minute delay to Sunday's vote plunged the traditionally stable West African nation into its worst political crisis in decades and sparked unrest during which three people were killed.

The opposition decried Sall's move as a "constitutional coup", saying his party feared defeat at the ballot box for its candidate, Prime Minister Amadou Ba.

The incumbent has repeatedly said he will not seek re-election.

Last week, Senegal's Constitutional Council overturned the vote delay, which would have kept Sall in office until his successor was installed.

The Aar Sunu Election on Saturday mobilised several thousand people in Dakar in the first authorised protest since the election was postponed. By John Wessels (AFP)

The Council said it was "impossible to organise the presidential election on the initially scheduled date" but invited "the competent authorities to hold it as soon as possible".

However, it left open the question of when the election would be held.

The 15 candidates said the electoral process should have been resumed and accused Sall of neglecting his duty to organise the election.

"Everything suggests that Macky Sall cannot come to terms with the fact that his attempt to sabotage the presidential election was thwarted by the Constitutional Council and the people," they said.

'Farewell party'

The 15 candidates announced "a series of actions aimed at ensuring that the election is held within the allotted time".

They are among the 19 names included in the Constitutional Council's largely unchanged list of candidates for the delayed presidential poll.

The Aar Sunu Election collective said it will hold a rally in the capital Dakar on Saturday, the day before the election was due to take place.

Hundreds of prisoners have been granted provisional release in an apparent appeasement gesture by Sall. By JOHN WESSELS (AFP)

It called on participants to come with their voter cards, for what it described as Sall's "farewell party".

The collective also urged voters to head to polling stations on Sunday, as part of a symbolic gesture.

Aar Sunu Election on Saturday mobilised several thousand people in the streets of the capital, in the first authorised protest since Sall postponed the election.

Senegal's international partners had expressed concern about the political turmoil.

But Sall's announcement that he would "fully" implement the decision of the Constitutional Council, and the provisional release of hundreds of prisoners, appears to have calmed tensions.