Senegal parliament debates election delay as police disperse Dakar protests
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00:00 Some people protested, setting up barricades in Dakar, the Senegalese capital.
00:05 They converged, heeding the call of some opposition candidates to express their anger at President
00:11 Macky Sall's postponement of the presidential election.
00:14 Police responded with tear gas.
00:17 "The president is violating the constitution in a very flagrant manner."
00:23 In tension related to the opposition, former Prime Minister Aminata Touré, now a leading
00:28 opposition leader, was arrested while arriving at one protest.
00:31 She had condemned Macky Sall's decision to postpone the election as an "unprecedented
00:36 democratic regression" in a post on social media on Saturday.
00:40 "Sall, who is not running for another term, justified the postponement saying it was due
00:45 to a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court over the rejection
00:50 of certain presidential candidates.
00:53 One opposition group will appeal the decision."
00:55 "Our parliamentary group will lodge an appeal against the resolution with the Constitutional
01:04 Council on Monday."
01:07 In other developments, private broadcaster WALF TV was taken off the air.
01:11 The communications ministry said its coverage of the protests amounted to incitement to
01:15 violence.
01:16 A Senegalese government spokesman speaking to France 24 said the protests were unauthorized.
01:22 "Today you can see people, the opposition, protesting even though they complained to
01:28 the president about the system of sponsorship for the presidential elections.
01:33 These are people who say one day the sponsorship system didn't work, the constitutional court
01:38 didn't do its job, but then the next day they don't want the election to be delayed even
01:42 though that's what they wanted to begin with."
01:49 Opposition leaders and presidential candidates have lined up to denounce Salle's move.
01:53 Under Senegal's election code, at least 80 days must pass between the publication of
01:57 the decree setting the date for the vote and the election itself.
02:01 (chewing)