Last week marked the resumption of the candidate application review for the Senegal Presidential Election. Notably, certain candidates, such as Prime Minister Amadou Ba and opposition figures Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade, successfully secured validation for their endorsements. However, for others, it necessitates a reconsideration of their list of endorsers, leading to the elimination of some candidates from the race.
Out of the ninety-three submitted applications, only nine candidates had their endorsements validated last week. Twenty candidates are required to undergo a second round of scrutiny.
The issue at hand involves the presence of external duplicates on their endorsement forms, meaning names that appeared on the forms of one or more other candidates, as well as names not found in the electoral register. Candidates notified on Friday have until 5 PM this Monday to submit the revised list to the Constitutional Council.
For some, it should be relatively easy to obtain the missing signatures, such as Malick Gakou of the Grand Party, who is short by approximately 3,500 out of 44,000 requested, or Idrissa Seck, a former Prime Minister, who needs to find just under 6,000.
For others, the challenge is more significant, as in the case of gynecologist Rose Wardini, who needs to rectify 31,000 names. Another example is former Prime Minister Aminata Touré, with 19,000 invalidated endorsers.
Several candidates were directly disqualified due to missing documents or an insufficient number of endorsers. Notable figures among them include former Prime Minister Cheikh Hadjibou Soumaré, President Macky Sall’s brother Adama Faye, former minister Aida Mbodj, and opposition figure Ousmane Sonko.