Amidst speculations that President Macky Sall was likely to contest again bringing a lot of uncertainty to the sub-region following the already volatile political instability in some member countries, President Macky Sall put to rest all that uncertainty on Monday, July 3, 2023 to the surprise of the nation during a television address where he announced that he will not run for another term in the next presidential election.
“This decision, largely anticipated, puts an end to several months, even years, of speculation on its possibility”.
Senator Snowe Jr. commended him with the hope that others like the president of the Gambia, H. E Adama Barrow would follow his example since a lot of work was done at the background through mediation.
According to him, even though the President of Senegal indicated during the height of scheme of things that he will not stand, he will not say anything until he makes official announcement to that effect.
In the case of Gambia, Chairman Snowe Jr. noted that during the first term of President Barrow, constitutional amendment could have been done, the blame can be shifted on the Parliament and the Executive, but “the end justifies the means; we are praying that he will be magnanimous even if he changes the constitution he will agree that he is in his final term”
For the sustainability of democracy in the Gambia, we need to promote democracy in its true meaning not by ambushing the constitution. We still have the ECOWAS peace keeping force in the Gambia.
Again, Gambia play a very important role in our community today, the Commission is headed by a Gambian and that speaks a lot for Gambia and President Barrow whose office has commended the Senegal president, “I hope he will follow and not consider running for a third term based on constitutional technicality”.
On the upcoming Summit of the Authority of Heads of States and Governments as chair of the Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), he noted that the issue of not tempering with constitution for presidents to run for third term will come up for discussion on July 9, 2023 in Guinea-Bissau.
Meanwhile, in an interview Edwin Snowe Jr. revealed that three countries are opposed to the treaty of ECOWAS on Good Governance but did not reveal their names and further added that ECOWAS is talking at its level of raising one billion dollars for peace keeping operations against unconstitutional change of government.
