Constitutional Council approves 20 candidates, rejects Kareem Wade and Osmane Sonkony

Published on: 01/21/2024 – 00:32Modified: 01/21/2024 – 00:34

3 minutes

With our correspondents in Dakar, Juliet Dubois And Leigh-Lisa Westerhoff

The listing came down shortly before 10pm on Saturday. 20 of them will contest the presidential election on February 25. The figure is a sharp increase compared to 2019 when only 5 of them passed the scrutiny of the Constitutional Council.

A first blow for PDS’s Kareem Wade whose candidature was eventually disqualified. You only need to have Senegalese nationality to hope to become president in Senegal. However, Karim Wade only lost his French nationality on 16 January following a decree published in the French Official Journal, according to the Constitutional Council. So the affidavit certifying that he no longer holds his dual citizenship and which he provided in the file submitted in December is “inaccurate” to the seven wise men, who nevertheless validated his candidacy earlier last week.

It was an appeal filed by another candidate, Thierno Alasan Saul, that sowed doubt and forced the Constitutional Council to request supporting documents. It is a major disappointment and a fresh setback in the ranks of his K24 coalition. In 2019, his candidacy was already invalidated due to his conviction for embezzlement of public funds. Deported to Qatar after Macky Saul’s presidential pardon in 2016, Karim Wade has not returned to Senegal since, but his relatives announced an imminent return, which now appears to have been resolved. And the PDS has not planned a plan B in case of rejecting the former minister’s candidature. Hence the party has to decide a new strategy in the coming days.

Osman rejected Sonko’s appeal

Sonko’s appeal to jailed opponent Osman, who was excluded from the provisional list, was also rejected. That Constitutional Council firmly rejected the possibility of adding Osman Sonko to the list of candidates based on the 6-month prison sentence against Minister Mame Mbaye Niang for defamation. The Supreme Court confirmed the conviction on January 4. making it ineligible for a period of 5 years

» we can read in the decision given by the Constitutional Council.

So exit what was billed as one of the likely favorites of the presidential election. “ The Constitutional Council has just created the most dangerous precedent in Senegal’s political history », Al Malik Ndia, spokesman for the dissolved Pastef party, reacted. Who will replace Osmane Sonko’s candidacy now?

Former Pastef Party No. 2, Basirou Diomei Faye, has been Osmane Sonko’s party’s plan B for several weeks. ” It is Diomaye who is Sonko » Can we read on the Facebook page of the opposition party spokesperson yesterday evening. Imprisoned for a case for which he has not yet been tried, the Constitutional Council held that his preventive detention was not an obstacle to the exercise of his political rights and confirmed his candidacy.

In 2019 two other possibilities are available, if not for supporters of Ousmane Sonko, the former campaign director of the opposition, Cheikh Tidiane Daye, or for Habib Si, the former president of the opposition coalition leaders’ council, sponsored by the deputies. Ex-pastef.

Note, other recognized candidates are Prime Minister Amadou Ba, former heads of government Idrissa Sek and Mohamed Boun Abda Dion, and former mayor of Dakar Khalifa Saul.