Senegal’s top court has rejected a proposal by President Macky Sall to cut his current 7-year term by two years, the West African country’s leader said.
Sall had proposed 15 reforms in all, including limiting Senegal’s presidential terms to two mandates and expanding the powers of the national assembly and the constitutional council.
“On the implementation of reducing the mandate of the president, the constitutional council recommended that this should be scrapped,” Sall said in a brief television address, referring to his ongoing term which is due to end in 2019.
Shortened presidential terms after 2019, alongside the other reforms wil be put to a referendum on March 20, he said.
In March last year, Sall said reducing his own term would set an example, making good on his campaign pledge.
“We have to understand, in Africa too, that we are able to offer an example, and that power is not an end in itself,” he said.
Several African countries have in the past changed their constitutions to benefit their incumbent leaders, including Algeria, Chad, Uganda, Djibouti and Angola.
Rwandese President Paul Kagame also plans to run for a third term in office following a constitutional amendment.
The United States and the European Union have criticized this move.
Neighbouring Burundi descended into bloodshed in April last year when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his intention to run for a controversial third term, sparking a failed coup.
