President Macky Sall has used the government weekly cabinet meeting to refute suspicions that he postponed the presidential election to extend his tenure as Senegal’s leader. “It is nonsense,” declared the head of state to his supporters during the government meeting.

According to the Senegalese newspaper L’Observateur, Macky Sall questioned, “How can anyone think of linking my decision to postpone the election to a supposed desire to remain in power for another three or ten months after I voluntarily relinquished another term, which I was entitled to?”

The newspaper further reported that the Senegalese head of state considers it unlikely that he would cling to power when a variety of post-Palais career opportunities lie before him. He assured that his sole objective, in rescinding the decree convening the constituency on February 25, was to leave behind a united country at the end of his presidency. “I acted responsibly; it was a moral duty,” Macky Sall stated, as per L’Observateur.

The same source mentioned that Macky Sall suggested that not postponing the elections, amid a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Council over the verification of endorsements, would have been a failure on his part. “It’s like asking a head of family to leave the house while their children were tearing each other apart,” he compared, likening the rearrangement of the electoral calendar to a “necessity for the nation’s equilibrium.”

Some members of the government pointed out to the head of state that it would have been better for him to leave the initiative for the postponement to the MPs. “I couldn’t wait for the National Assembly. I had to assume my responsibilities in the name of national cohesion,” responded Macky Sall, according to L’Observateur.

Following the explanatory meeting, the president reiterated his confidence in Prime Minister Amadou Ba. He expressed his determination to continue dialogue with political actors and the vital forces of the nation. Macky Sall urged members of his camp to engage in the political arena and rally around Benno’s prime ministerial candidate for the presidential election, now scheduled for December 15.