Senegal to open inquiry on constitutional council's handling of presidential selection process

The creation of an investigative committee into the candidate selection process was comfortably adopted, rousing cries of joy from parliament, RFI's correspondent in Dakar reported. A prominent opponent, Wade served as a minister when his father was president. He was ruled inadmissible by the Constitutional Council because of his dual French and Senegalese nationality. Wade said he renounced the French citizenship in October 2023. [...] Wade's supporters are hoping for a postponement of the vote to allow their candidate to return to the race. [...] But the other parties disagree. The representative of the Yewwi Askan Wi opposition coalition, Ayib Dafe, voted against the commission of inquiry. He says that the demand for postponement is not in the voters' interests. In the presidential camp, MPs want to avoid an institutional crisis. [...] The first round of the presidential election is set for 25 February, with an unprecedented 20 candidates in the running. It includes an imprisoned anti-establishment contender, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who is running in the name of popular mayor of Ziguinchor, Ousmane Sonko, also in prison, under the banner of his Pastef party.
Read the full article here: RFI