Senegal opposition will not appeal the results of the legislatives

Senegal's main opposition alliance on Wednesday announced it would not appeal against the July 31 legislative election results.

Provisional results, published on August 4, saw the presidential coalition lose an absolute majority, a first in history for the West African country.

"We think that there is no point in going to the Constitutional Council to lodge an appeal because it is not at this level that the two or even three deputies who were removed from the inter-coalition, given the ballot box stuffing that existed in some areas, it is not at the level of the Constitutional Council that these three deputies will be returned to us" said Dethie Fall, member of the Yewwi Askan Wi coalition.

The Yewwi-Wallu inter-coalition confirmed it will not appeal to the Constitutional Council Wednesday, without specifying whether it accepted or contested the results.

"We have unanimously decided not to participate in the election of the high councillors of the local authorities. And better yet, in the National Assembly, after the control we intend to carry out, we'll introduce a bill for its dissolution," added Dethie.

Yewwi Askan Wi had complained on August 4 about the vote-counting commission "refusing" to let it "verify" the voting records in four localities in the north of the country, a stronghold of President Sall.

The final figures must be published by the Constitutional Council, Senegal's highest court, no later than Thursday.

President Macky Sall's coalition, which includes his party Alliance for the Republic (APR) and other parties, won 82 seats of the National Assembly's 165, the national vote-counting commission said, down from the 125 it won in 2017.

***AFP***