Senegal's presidential race includes 20 candidates, with 2 main opposition leaders left out

KIGALI, Rwanda

The Senegalese Constitutional Council has approved the final list of 20 candidates for the presidential election scheduled for Feb. 25, but two opposition leaders, Ousmane Sonko and Karim Wade, son of former President Abdoulaye Wade, have been excluded.

According to the final list released late Saturday, which left out the names of the two main opposition leaders, Sonko and Wade, the candidates include Prime Minister Amadou Ba of the ruling party and his two predecessors, Idrissa Seck and Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne.

Sonko, who is popular among young voters, finished third in the 2019 election against incumbent president Macky Sall, who ruled out running for a third term last year after months of speculation.

Sonko's name was not included in the list, according to the council, because a Dakar appellate court convicted him last year for defaming Tourism Minister Mame Mbaye Niang and sentenced him to a six-month suspended sentence, rendering him ineligible for five years.

In June last year, he was also convicted of “corrupting youth” and sentenced to two years in prison, which sparked violent protests across the country.

Sonko, whose Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics, and Fraternity (PASTEF) party was dissolved by the government last year, was arrested in Dakar at the end of July on charges of “insurrection and conspiracy” against the state.

Another opposition leader Karim Wade was dropped from the final list on the grounds that his “candidacy is inadmissible” due to dual French and Senegalese citizenship, according to the council.

Wade, 55, who was born in France to a Senegalese father and a French mother, produced a sworn statement dated Dec. 21 stating that he is exclusively Senegalese, the council said.

However, the evidentiary document he submitted was a decree dated Jan.16 that was published the following day in the Official Journal of the French Republic.

The council said it considered that the effects of Wade's renunciation of his French nationality "are not retroactive" and that his sworn statement was "inaccurate" at the time of filing.

On Sunday, Wade denounced the decision to exclude him, calling it “scandalous” and “a blatant attack on democracy.”

On X, he stated that he would challenge the decision in international courts, including the regional ECOWAS court.

However, the council accepted the well-known candidate Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, who is being touted as Sonko's replacement.

But Faye, 43, a member of Sonko's dissolved party, is in prison though has not yet been tried.

He was detained in April 2023 on charges of “contempt of court” and “defamation of a constituted body” following a Facebook post.

The final list includes two women, Rose Wardini, a gynecologist and civil society activist, and entrepreneur Anta Babacar Ngom.