Senegal / legislative: the Constitutional Council decides after the appeals filed by the opposition
The Constitutional Council of Senegal.
Photo taken in 2018. William de Lesseux/RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Senegal is experiencing an intense debate around the validity of certain lists for the legislative elections of July 31.
The Constitutional Council published its decisions on Tuesday morning after appeals filed by the opposition.
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With our correspondent in Dakar,
Charlotte Idrac
The Constitutional Council notably authorizes
the opposition coalition Yewwi Askan Wi
to modify its list for the department of Dakar.
This list had been invalidated by the Directorate General of Elections.
Reason: non-respect of parity.
This had angered the mayor of Dakar, Barthélémy Dias, also head of the list in the department... According to the wise men of the Constitutional Council, the Yewwi Askan Wi coalition can indeed "
remove and substitute
" candidates.
Another decision was published on Tuesday morning, this time concerning the list of the majority coalition Benno Bokk Yakaar, which had submitted more sponsorships than the number required by law.
The opposition had seized the Council to invalidate this list.
But according to the institution, these appeals are “
inadmissible
”.
Two decisions that go in the direction of "
appeasement
", according to human rights defender Alioune Tine, of the think tank Afrikajom center.
#Senegal continued / On the debate around the surplus of sponsorships for the Benno Bokk Yakaar coalition: for the CC, the appeals filed by the opposition to invalidate the BBY list are inadmissible #kebetu pic.twitter.com/09skInWSWg
– Charlotte Idrac (@CharlotteIdrac) May 24, 2022
But this is not the end of the debate: the two main coalitions accuse each other of having made other errors on the lists.
For problems, again, of non-respect of parity on the majority list or the nomination of the same person twice on the national list of Yewwi Askan Wi... "
It is the first time in the history of Senegal that we have so many problems
”, declared this Monday evening Khalifa Sall, who spoke of “
cacophony
”.
The former mayor of Dakar and one of the leaders of the Yewwi Askan Wi coalition has called for a rally against what he describes as "
forfeiture
", "
double standards
" by the electoral administration, to "
remove opposition
," he said.
In the process, Ousmane Sonko, head of the national list for Yewwi Askan Wi called for "
resistance
", with a call for a "
mobilization of 200,000 people
" in Dakar.
For its part, the presidential coalition accused the opposition
of "smoking out
".
The tone is raised, therefore, in view of these legislative elections.
Several civil society organizations have warned of the risk of political violence.
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