Karim Wade and Khalifa Sall remain suspended from the fate that the Constitutional Council will reserve for the appeal for annulment of the law which makes them eligible, introduced by MPs who are members of the Yewwi askan wi parliamentary group, last Friday.

If they have recovered the fullness of their civic rights, following the adoption, by the National Assembly, on August 5, of law 16-2023 modifying law n ° 2021-35 of July 23, 2021 on the Electoral Code, Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade are yet to see the end of the tunnel. In fact, members of the parliamentary group Yewwi askan wi seized the Constitutional Council on an « appeal for annulment » of this decision, which allows the two « K »s to be able to conquer the votes of their compatriots in the next presidential election. These MPs of Yaw oppose their rehabilitation by seizing the 7 « Wise Men » in order to cancel the reinstatement of these two politicians in the electoral circuit after each of them has been convicted. In addition to having to pay their fine (5 million for Khalifa and 138 billion CFA francs for Karim) in order to have a tax clearance, their destiny is now suspended following the Yewwi askan wi MPs referral to the Constitutional Council.

This request was filed on Friday, August 11, 2023. According to the note received by the press, the referral is made for these reasons: « Violation of the principle of equality before the law, discrimination in access to exercise of power, manifest interference of the regulatory power in the domain of the law: pardon, which is a remission of sentence granted by the President of the Republic, cannot produce the effects of an amnesty, the geographical distribution of the sponsorship of heads of territorial executives must be fixed by law and not by decree.”

The other “grievances” raised by the Yaw deputies are the “violation of the principle of necessity and individualization of sentences with the establishment of automatic disqualifications of civil and political rights not pronounced by the judge”. There is also the “violation by the citizen sponsorship system of the secrecy of the vote, breach of the equality of political parties and discrimination for the sponsorship of elected officials”.

By Amadou MBODJI / ambodji@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH