The deadline for submitting applications for the presidential election in Senegal expired on Wednesday, December 27, at midnight. As of Tuesday, December 26, 70 applications were filed with the Constitutional Council. At the closing hour, there were still candidates’ representatives in the council’s offices, awaiting the reception of their documents. Leading opposition figures and the candidate from the ruling coalition are all on a preliminary list of potential candidates who will be officially designated on January 4, 2024.
The official list of candidates who can apply for the presidential seat in the February 25, 2024, election will be announced in January. For the time being, the 70 presidential hopefuls will have to wait a few more days, after which their files will be either validated or rejected by the Constitutional Council.
Among them is Amadou Ba, the Senegalese Prime Minister and ruling coalition candidate. Several other candidates have submitted their documents to the council’s registry. Among the opposition figures are Ousmane Sonko, Khalifa Sall, Karim Wade, Idrissa Seck, and political newcomers like Abdoulaye Sylla and Rose Wardini.
All are awaiting the draw conducted on Thursday, December 28, to determine the order of verification of sponsorship documents by the council’s teams only after this step will each candidacy be declared valid or not.
Several candidates have opted for sponsorship from parliamentarians, with an obligation to gather support from 13 deputies to avoid duplicate entries in the sponsorship lists. Duplicates were the reason for several candidates not participating in the 2019 presidential election, where only five candidates had their candidacy validated.
This number is expected to be significantly surpassed in the upcoming presidential election, according to an observer. The election will take place without the incumbent president, Macky Sall, a first in Senegal.