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Senegal’s President accused of hypocrisy

The former Prime Minister of Senegal, Aminata Touré, says Macky Sall is “behaving like a 90-year-old African autocrat, which we won’t accept”.

The West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, is holding an emergency meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to discuss the political crisis in Senegal.

At the weekend, President Macky Sall announced that the upcoming presidential election would be postponed.

On Monday, riot police fired tear gas to break up protestors trying to gather outside Senegal’s national assembly.

Opposition candidates have said they are uniting to campaign against the delay, and most have called on civil society, labour and religious leaders to rise up against the change, which they say violates the constitution.

Aminata Touré is a Senegalese politician who served as the Prime Minister of Senegal. She told Newsday: “Twelve years ago we were together in the street fighting against the third term of President Wade and so here he is doing exactly the same action that he used to fight against.”

She added: “He’s behaving like a 90-year-old African autocrat, which we wont accept.”

(Picture: Shows Senegal's president Macky Sall (R) with Senegal's former Prime Minister Aminata Toure (L) on January 16, 2014. Credit: Seyllou / AFP via Getty Images.)

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