Opposition leader Sonko is excluded from the Senegal presidential candidate list.

Senegal’s Constitutional Council has finalized a list of 20 candidates for the upcoming presidential election on February 25. Notably absent from the list are Ousmane Sonko, a jailed opposition leader, and Karim Wade, the son of former president Abdoulaye Wade. The list includes Prime Minister Amadou Ba, chosen as President Macky Sall’s successor after Sall announced he wouldn’t seek a third term. Other candidates named are former prime ministers Idrissa Seck and Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, ex-mayor of Dakar Khalifa Sall, and Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, a substitute for Sonko.

 

Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, aged 43 and a member of Sonko’s dissolved party, is also detained but has not yet faced trial. He has been in prison since April 2023 on charges of “contempt of court” and “defamation against a corporate body” over a Facebook post. Sonko, who secured the third position in the 2019 presidential election, has been in a prolonged stand-off with the state for over two years, leading to periodic unrest. Despite generating significant support, especially among the youth, he has been excluded from the presidential race.

 

The rejection of Sonko’s candidacy by the Constitutional Council is attributed to his six-month suspended sentence for defamation, upheld by the Supreme Court on January 4. Additionally, he faced a substantial fine for defamation and insults against Tourism Minister Mame Mbaye Niang. Sonko’s absence from the candidate list marks a significant development in the lead-up to the presidential election, reflecting the complexities of politics and legal challenges in Senegal.