- Written by Will Ross
- Africa Editor, BBC World Service
President Macky Sall, who was elected for a second time in 2019, said he has no intention of running again.
There is growing international concern about Senegal's political situation after President Macky Sall called off this month's elections over a dispute over candidate qualifications.
West Africa regional bloc Ecowas and the United States called on authorities to clarify when the vote will take place, as no new date has been set.
France and the EU are also calling for elections to be held as soon as possible.
Police fired tear gas at groups of protesters in the capital.
The scenes in Dakar are a worrying sign of what is to come, with calls for further protests on Monday.
Senegal is considered one of West Africa's most stable democracies, but uncertainty about when people will have the opportunity to vote and doubts that elections will not be free and fair have led to this crisis. It's damaging the image.
Although President Sall's repeated announcement that he would not run for a third term was welcomed, there are concerns about the impact of the fact that no election date has been set. The vote was supposed to take place within three weeks.
Uncertainty has influenced deadly protests in the past, as have opposition parties claiming politically motivated cases against potential candidates.
Speculation that Mr. Sall was seeking a third term fueled opposition protests for months, leading to riots and scores of deaths. He declared last July that he would not ultimately seek a third term.
Opposition candidates called the president's decision to postpone the election a constitutional coup.
Khalifa Sall, a former mayor of the capital Dakar (no relation to the president), called on people to protest the move and his political coalition promised to go to court.
Karim Wade, the former president's son, was one of dozens of people deemed ineligible by the Constitutional Council. This is because he is said to be both a Senegalese and a French citizen, with AFP news agency reporting the accusations as a “scandal”.
Angered by his exclusion, his party on Friday asked parliament to postpone the vote. They questioned the neutrality of two of the judges on the committee that decided on the final list of candidates.
I'm not sure if the various international calls make any difference.
France no longer has the influence it once had in its former colonies throughout West Africa.
Senegal's stability will be tested if some opposition politicians who opposed the postponement are able to organize large-scale street protests.
Sall's critics have suggested that he feared that his chosen successor, Prime Minister Amadou Bah, was at risk of losing the election.
On Saturday, the president called off the election following complaints about people being excluded from voting.
“These difficult circumstances could have a significant negative impact on voting,” Sall said.
It added that it would launch “an open national dialogue to create the conditions for free, transparent and inclusive elections in a peaceful and reconciled Senegal.”
Twenty candidates made the final list, but in addition to Wade, opposition politician Ousmane Sonko was among the most prominent people excluded from the initial vote.
The popular star was suspended after being found guilty of defamation. Sonko, who is facing numerous trials, said he was the victim of a campaign to prevent him from running for president.
