Senegalese opposition fight nationality rule change

As government mulls preventing dual citizens from holding office, opposition says it is being disenfranchised

By Alpha Kamara

DAKAR, Senegal (AA) – Senegal’s opposition has said any move to change the country’s rules on dual citizenship are a recipe for chaos.

Senegal’s constitution says anyone who holds dual citizenship should relinquish the second at least five years before taking up a political appointment.

Despite some former Senegalese politicians holding two passports throughout their rule, a debate started by the current government on changing the rules is being described as a way of disenfranchising opposition Senegalese Democratic Party candidates.

Former President Abdulai Wade and his two predecessors, as well as former Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye, held dual citizenship but were able to rule the country.

Many Senegalese have two passports as people born before independence were French nationals. Others have studied or worked in France for several years and taken on French nationality. Others have dual citizenship with the Gambia because of inter-marriage and cultural ties.

Opposition party members now think President Macky Sall is pressing this issue to bar their candidates ahead of 2019 elections.

A political analyst, Amadou Ba, told Anadolu Agency on Monday that citizenship issues all over Africa are very sensitive.

“My question is why should President Macky Sall raise this issue at this point in time? This discussion will only lead us to conflict and I am totally against it,” he said.

Serine Sallieu Diop, a supporter of opposition leader Karim Wade says pushing the move to prevent dual citizens from holding public office in Africa has never yielded good results.

Sallieu says: “In Cote d’Ivoire a move to question the citizenship of current President Alassan Ouattara when he was in the opposition led to a bloody civil war that devastated the country and killed lots of people”.

“We don’t want our country to be like that,” he told Anadolu Agency.

In March, President Sall won a referendum aimed at reducing presidential term limits from seven to five years.

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