Senegal: Constitutional Council releases unchanged presidential candidate list

Senegal’s Constitutional Council has released an updated list of candidates for the presidential election, which was postponed from February 25 to an undetermined date.

Only one candidate was removed from the original list as she withdrew her application.

Recall that the council overturned a bill that had postponed the vote until December, a decision that had caused uncertainty in Senegal’s constitutional landscape and sparked public outrage against the government.

The updated candidate list remained largely unchanged from the original list for the February 25 vote, except for the removal of opposition contender Rose Wardini. This adjustment reduced the number of candidates from 20 to 19.

The council stated that Wardini had withdrawn her application without providing additional details. Top opposition figures such as the incarcerated politician Ousmane Sonko and Karim Wade, the son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, remained excluded from the candidate list.

While there has been some gradual calm since the court intervened, running the election using the contested candidate list may ignite further turmoil and violence from those prevented from standing.

Senegal stands out as one of West Africa’s most stable democracies, being the sole country in the region to have never experienced a military coup.

The regional ECOWAS bloc, the AU, the US, and others have called for the restoration of the previous election calendar while calling for a peaceful transfer of power.