Senegalese presidential election: many candidates but few elected officials

The sponsorship collection campaign has started in Senegal, where 75 candidates hope to run in the presidential elections in February 2024.

Several dozen of them have positioned themselves as candidates for the Senegalese presidential election next February. But few will have the right to participate in the campaign. The 75 contenders for the supreme office are now in a race against time. Objective: obtain sufficient sponsorship to be officially nominated as a candidate. The sponsorship collection campaign opened last Wednesday, and the applicants' teams are on war footing to gather all the necessary papers to validate the applications.

For two months, the campaign teams must attract possible support in several strata of society: they have the choice between obtaining support from 0,6% of the electoral register or from elected officials - deputies, mayors and presidents. of departmental council. A way of eliminating, de facto, the least serious applications, even if the conditions of application have been less restrictive since the constitutional revision last July.

A slew of opponents

If several dozen applications should therefore be excluded, others, on the other hand, should pass the test with flying colors. Among these, that of the presidential coalition Benno Bokk Yaakaar, which invested Prime Minister Amadou Bâ. But it is on the side of the opposition that all eyes are now on. On the one hand, former supporters of Macky Sall, like Mame Boye Diao, Mahamadou Boun Abdallah Dionne and Souleymane Ndéné Ndiaye, will try to enter the race for the presidency. On the other hand, historical opponents want to participate in the campaign.

At the head of these, Ousmane Sonko, of course. But since the dissolution of Pastef, his party, and especially since his conviction, Sonko could be made ineligible. The search for sponsorship has, however, begun and the Pastefs are today acting as if their leader was eligible for president, although removed from the electoral lists.

If Sonko's ineligibility is confirmed, other candidates know that they can do well. This is the case of Khalifa Sall. The founder of the Taxawu Senegal movement, after missing the 2019 meeting, is officially a candidate. Unlike Karim Wade, exiled in Qatar, who leaves doubt about his candidacy. Former Prime Ministers Idrissa Seck and Aminata Touré are also determined to play spoilsport.