2024-01-21 03:13:54
The Senegalese Constitutional Council published, on Saturday January 20, a final list of twenty candidates for the February 25 presidential election, which does not include Karim Wade, son of former President Abdoulaye Wade.
It includes the candidate of the presidential camp, Prime Minister Amadou Bâ, the former heads of government and opponents Idrissa Seck and Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, the former mayor of Dakar Khalifa Sall, as well as Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, presented as the candidate of substitution for the imprisoned opponent Ousmane Sonko. Mr. Faye, 43, a member of Mr. Sonko’s dissolved party, is also detained, but he has not yet been tried.
Ousmane Sonko, central figure in a standoff lasting more than two years with the State which gave rise to several episodes of deadly unrest, does not appear on the list, as was expected. Popular among young people, he was among the favorites in the presidential election. The Constitutional Council rejected his candidacy on January 5 due to a final sentence for defamation with a six-month suspended prison sentence, a case which pitted him against a minister who was a member of the presidential camp.
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In another case, Ousmane Sonko was found guilty, in June 2023, of debauchery of a minor and sentenced to two years in prison, then imprisoned at the end of July on other charges, including calling for insurrection, association of criminals linked to a terrorist enterprise and an attack on state security. Mr. Sonko denounced a plot to prevent him from participating in the presidential election, which the government denies.
The list published by the Constitutional Council also includes two women, Rose Wardini, gynecologist and civil society actress, and the entrepreneur Anta Babacar Ngom.
Karim Wade’s dual nationality in question
The opponent Karim Wade, son but also minister of ex-president Abdoulaye Wade (2000-2012), is absent due to a candidacy judged “inadmissible” because of his dual French and Senegalese nationality, according to the Constitutional Council.
Any presidential candidate “must be exclusively of Senegalese nationality, enjoy civil and political rights, be at least 35 years old and at most 75 years old on voting day”, says the Constitution. He must also know how to write, read and speak the official language, French, fluently.
Read also: Presidential election in Senegal: opponent Karim Wade has submitted his candidacy
Karim Wade, born in France to a Senegalese father and a mother of French origin, produced a sworn declaration dated December 21, 2023 according to which he has exclusively Senegalese nationality, indicated the Council. However, the document of proof that he presented is a decree dated January 16 published the following day in Official Journal of the French Republic. The court considers that the effects of the decree establishing Karim Wade’s loss of his French nationality “are not retroactive” and that his sworn declaration was “inaccurate” at the time of its filing.
Former minister Thierno Alassane Sall, himself a candidate, indicated that he had filed an appeal on Monday against Mr. Wade’s candidacy, deeming it unconstitutional.
Read also: Senegal: what does Karim Wade really want?
With just over a month to go, there is total uncertainty as to the outcome of the election, which includes two rounds. Senegal is organizing a presidential election for the first time without the participation of the incumbent. President Macky Sall, elected in 2012 for seven years and re-elected in 2019, declared in July 2023 that he would not run again. He then chose the prime minister, Amadou Bâ, to succeed him, a choice which was contested by majority officials, including former prime minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne and former minister Aly Ngouille Ndiaye, who also appears among the twenty candidates selected.
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