Senegal’s Constitutional Council has released a new and final list of 19 candidates eligible to run in the presidential election originally scheduled for February 25.
The list of candidates remained almost unchanged, except for the withdrawal of Rose Wardini, leader of the Sénégal Nouveau movement. The list retained earlier council-approved candidates, including incumbent President Macky Sall’s chosen successor, Prime Minister Amadou Ba, as well as former heads of government Idrissa Seck and Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, and former mayor of the country’s capital Dakar and popular opposition leader, Khalifa Sall.
Prominent opposition figures including the jailed politician Ousmane Sonko and Karim Wade, the son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, remained excluded.
Wardini, whose candidacy was hotly contested because of her alleged French citizenship, and one of the reasons President Sall called for an investigation of the Council’s conduct, announced her intention to withdraw from the presidential race on Tuesday, noting that she had taken the decision “in complete sovereignty and after extensive consultations.”
Wade had hoped a review would see him included back on the list as a last minute decree signed by French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, releasing him from his allegiance to France made him eligible to run.
