Protest over election delay postponed in Senegal after government ban
Al Jazeera
The 40-group collective behind the march is protesting against ‘constitutional coup’, as alleged by the opposition.
A protest march scheduled for Tuesday against Senegalese President Macky Sall’s controversial move to delay this month’s presidential poll to December has been postponed after authorities banned it, organisers said.
Elymane Haby Kane, one of the organisers of the march, told AFP news agency he received an official letter from local authorities in the capital, Dakar, that the march was banned as it could seriously hamper traffic.
“We will postpone the march because we want to remain within the law,” said Malick Diop, coordinator of a collective that called the protest. “The march was banned. There’s a problem with the route so we will change this.”
Mobile internet coverage was also restricted, just as it had been on the day of the parliamentary vote.
“Due to the dissemination on social networks of several subversive hate messages that have already provoked violent demonstrations… mobile data is suspended this Tuesday 13 February,” the Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications and Digital Energy said in a statement.