2024-01-20 23:32:00
The Constitutional Council published on Saturday evening the final list of candidates for the presidential election on February 25. Twenty candidates will be in the race. Karim Wade’s candidacy, which was initially validated, was ultimately rejected because of his dual nationality. Ousmane Sonko is also definitively excluded from the race. On the other hand, several of his lieutenants from the former Pastef party will be candidates.
Published on: 01/21/2024 – 00:32 Modified on: 01/21/2024 – 00:34
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With our correspondents in Dakar, Juliette Dubois et Léa-Lisa Westerhoff
The list came down shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday evening. There will be 20 of them vying for the presidential election on February 25. A number up sharply compared to 2019 when only 5 of them passed the scrutiny of the Constitutional Council.
It is first of all a blow to Karim Wade of the PDS who sees his candidacy finally invalidated. You only need to have Senegalese nationality to hope to become president in Senegal. However, according to the Constitutional Council, Karim Wade only lost his French nationality on January 16 following a decree published in the French Official Journal. Therefore the sworn declaration attesting that he no longer had his dual nationality and which he provided in his file submitted in December is “inexact” for the seven wise men, who had nevertheless validated his candidacy initially. last week.
It was an appeal filed by another candidate, Thierno Alassane Sall, which sowed doubt and pushed the Constitutional Council to request supporting documents. In the ranks of his K24 coalition it is a great disappointment and a new setback. In 2019, his candidacy had already been invalidated, due to his conviction for embezzlement of public funds. Exiled in Qatar since the presidential pardon of Macky Sall in 2016, Karim Wade has not returned to Senegal since, but his relatives announced an imminent return, which now seems compromised. And the PDS has not planned a plan B in the event of rejection of the former minister’s candidacy. The party will therefore have to decide on a new strategy in the coming days.
Ousmane Sonko’s appeal rejected
The appeal of the imprisoned opponent Ousmane Sonko who had been excluded from the provisional list was also rejected. It is on the basis of his sentence to 6 months in prison for defamation once morest Minister Mame Mbaye Niang that the Constitutional Council definitively rejected the possibility of adding Ousmane Sonko to the list of candidates. This conviction confirmed by the Supreme Court on January 4. makes him ineligible for a period of 5 years » we can read in the decision rendered by the Constitutional Council.
Exit therefore the one who was given as one of the potential favorites of the presidential election. “ The Constitutional Council has just created the most dangerous precedent in the political history of Senegal », Reacted the spokesperson for the dissolved Pastef party, El Malick Ndiaye. Who to replace Ousmane Sonko’s candidacy now?
Bassirou Diomaye Faye, number 2 of the former Pastef party, has for several weeks already been the plan B of Ousmane Sonko’s party. “ It’s Diomaye who is Sonko » might we read yesterday evening on the Facebook page of the spokesperson for the opponent’s party. In prison for a case for which he has not yet been tried, the constitutional council considered that his preventive detention was not an obstacle to the exercise of his political rights and confirmed his candidacy
Two other possibilities are available if not to the supporters of Ousmane Sonko, Cheikh Tidiane Dieye, former campaign director of the opponent in 2019 or Habib Sy, the former president of the conference of leaders of the opposition coalition Yewwi Askan Wi was sponsored by deputies from the ex-Pastef.
Note, among the other validated candidates are Prime Minister Amadou Bâ, former heads of government Idrissa Seck and Mahammed Boun Abda Dione and the former mayor of Dakar Khalifa Sall.
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