There were almost three hundred of them announcing their ambition to become president of the Republic of Senegal in 2024. Twenty of them were finally included in the list made public by the Constitutional Council, as declared qualified for the electoral competition on February 25. This is undoubtedly a lot, because never in the political history of Senegal have so many candidates lined up for a presidential election. But this bloated number is no less a good thing. We can consider that this presidential election is intended to be as inclusive as possible. As a reminder, in 2019, there were only five candidates, compared to fourteen in 2012, fifteen in 2007, eight in 2000, eight again in 1993, four in 1988, five in 1983, two in 1978. Only one candidate, Léopold Sédar Senghor, under the single-party regime, was in the running for the presidential elections of 1973, 1968 and 1963.

Citizen Sponsorship Checks for the Presidential Election: PM’s Tears

In 2024, despite the sponsorship system which constitutes a first filter allowing the most eccentric candidates to be rejected, we will have four times more candidates than during the last presidential election. More than ever, it is the definitive answer that the sponsorship system proves to be absolutely necessary to regulate electoral competition and preserve the seriousness which must surround it.

Karim Wade and Ousmane Sonko, candidates without failed illusions

Both knew perfectly well that they could not and would not be candidates in this presidential election of 2024. Karim Meïssa Wade knows this so well that he has not deigned, for more than seven years, to set foot on the soil of the country that he claimed to lead; although less than a month before the electoral meeting, he continues to give instructions through social networks, announcing his inevitable return. I never took such announcements seriously, considering that it was a simple fool’s game and that Karim Wade wanted, deep down, to be rejected in order to be able to tell his supporters that he had wanted to come but that permission was not granted. Frankly, if Karim Wade wanted to be a candidate, he would have long ago given up his French nationality which, inevitably, would have prevented him from participating in the presidential election. But waiting for an appeal for invalidation against his candidacy to be filed, to rush to have a decree drawn up in “fast track” mode, seems more like a piece of theatre; especially since such a decree is subsequent to the submission of applications. One does not need to be a great jurist to know that if the Constitutional Council had accepted this late document provided by Karim Wade, which constitutes the decree of renunciation of its allegiance to the French Republic, the seven “Wise Men” would then have to authorize all the other 40 candidates whose files had already been rejected to be able to regularize them. The same question of dual nationality should no longer arise for him in 2029, if Karim Wade does not have other foreign nationalities, such as Spanish and Lebanese.

Sonko Invalidated by the Constitutional Council: Sweet End of the Project

Ousmane Sonko had disqualified himself from the position of President of the Republic, democratically elected by universal suffrage, since he repeatedly calls for insurrection against republican institutions and above all a military putsch to overthrow the democratically elected head of state. The Constitutional Council could have simply relied on these declarations to reject his candidacy. Ousmane Sonko also seems to have been well aware of this having nominated several candidates, each representing a particular pole or an allegiance of his dissolved party, the ex-Pastef. We can never say it enough, this political party appeared as a conglomeration of diverse forces and political poles, antagonistic and sometimes even refractory to each other. Ousmane Sonko, like all populist leaders and demagogues, could continue to serve as a figurehead, to unite everyone and promise each clique what it could hope for or expect. The deception could not continue any longer.

Mimi Touré and co. attempt an institutional putsch

The fact is too serious to be reduced to a banal debate in Dakar salons. A group of candidates, who were unable to meet sponsorship requirements, came together to advocate stopping the electoral process and postponing the presidential election. It goes without saying that they have no legal or factual argument for this, other than their selfishness. But they are so pretentious that they appear as incoherent as possible. Less than a month ago, when voices out of nowhere raised the idea of postponing the presidential election, to allow a new dialogue around the electoral process, Aminata Touré, Abdoul Mbaye, Bougane Guèye Dany and Abdourahmane Diouf were the most alert to rebel against such heresy. “Bëg bëré, bañ bëré” (the confrontation will take place by hook or by crook), they chorused. This camp suspected President Macky Sall’s camp of seeking subterfuges to remain at the head of the country. The same accusations had also been made, for many months and insistently, against Macky Sall and his regime, until the latter was obliged to point out the evidence of scrupulous respect for the electoral calendar. It then appears curious that these people, fiercely opposed to any vague idea of changing the electoral calendar, now want to engage Senegal in an adventure that could not be more perilous. What legitimacy would they give to the state authorities who would remain in place, beyond the period of renewal of the mandate of the President of the Republic? Damn, why suddenly intone a speech which risks setting a precedent never before known in Senegal, of postponing a presidential election?

Ironically, never has the context of the publication of the list of qualified candidates for the presidential election been as calm and serene as it is in this month of January 2024. Who does not remember the scuffles and deaths usually recorded at this stage of the electoral process? Precisely, in 2012, there was so much violence and death that the former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, dispatched to Dakar by ECOWAS to work to calm the situation of political tensions in Senegal, had recommended the postponement of the presidential election by granting a two-year respite to President Abdoulaye Wade whose candidacy was strongly contested. Aminata Touré as well as the entire political staff of candidate Macky Sall had firmly rejected such an idea which they considered “dangerous, subversive and anti-democratic”.

For the record, Sidy Lamine Niasse, boss of the Walfadjri Press Group, was called upon to step up to thwart the disastrous project. Thus, on February 21, 2012, he hosted a press conference fatal to this idea. The introductory text, written by Abou Abel Thiam, was initially validated by Macky Sall, then on an electoral tour, at the Guinguinéo stage. Macky Sall appointed Alioune Badara Cissé and Samba Diouldé Thiam to represent him at this press conference. Olusegun Obasanjo immediately took his plane back to Lagos and left the Senegalese with their “Senegalesary”.

Moreover, if by chance, a Karim Wade or a few offices in the presidential camp opposed to any idea of having to tolerate the candidacy of Amadou Ba, or even candidates already qualified for the Presidential election end up being convinced to add their votes to those theorists of postponement, this should not however authorize such a perilous leap into illegality and democratic forfeit. Again, this would open Pandora’s box in that it would just be a coup.

By Madiambal DIAGNE / mdiagne@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH