Postponement of Senegal election a further sign of West Africa's ominous drift from democracy

Supporters attending a campaign rally of Khalifa Sall, a former mayor of Dakar and government minister, in Dakar on February 20th, 2024. Senegal’s outgoing president Macky Sall – unrelated to Khalifa Sall – has pledged to organise presidential elections ‘as soon as possible’ after the country’s Constitutional Council overruled his decision to delay the vote. Photograph: Jerome Favre/EPA – European Pressphoto Agency Coups come in many guises. As do "insurrections". And Africa's latest suspension of democracy in its most stable democratic state, Senegal, just about qualifies as a coup, much as Trump's attempt to suppress his own election defeat just…