Around 7.3 million voters are expected to vote on Sunday March 24 to elect the fifth president of the Republic of Senegal.
Sixteen men and one woman are candidates for the supreme office, including Amadou Ba – Prime Minister of Macky Sall's government –, Bassirou Diomaye Faye – co-founder of the dissolved Pastef of the opponent Ousmane Sonko –, Idrissa Seck – former Prime Minister of Abdoulaye Wade – and Khalifa Sall – former mayor of Dakar.
Senegalese were initially scheduled to vote on February 25, but the cancellation and then postponement of the vote in early February led to unrest and several weeks of confusion that tested Senegal's democratic practice.
The vote will be particularly followed abroad. With 18 million inhabitants, Senegal is one of the most stable countries in West Africa shaken by coups d'état.
Presidential election in Senegal: instructions for use
Around 7.3 million Senegalese voters (out of 18 million inhabitants) are called to vote on Sunday March 24 to elect their fifth President of the Republic. This is the twelfth presidential election since the country's independence in 1960.
This election was at the heart of a political crisis in February after President Macky Sall decided to cancel the vote, triggering demonstrations repressed by security forces. The vote was subsequently postponed for ten months by a vote of the National Assembly. After a month of hesitation which alarmed national opinion and part of the international community, the date of the presidential election was finally set for March 24 – before the expiration of Macky Sall's mandate – after a decision by the Council constitutional.
🗳️ What is the voting method
?
In Senegal, the President of the Republic is elected by direct universal suffrage and by single-member majority voting in two rounds. Since the constitutional referendum of 2016, the duration of his mandate is five years, renewable only once.
To win in the first round, a candidate must obtain an absolute majority (more than 50% of the votes). If none of the candidates achieves this score, a second round is organized within two weeks following the announcement of the results in order to decide between the two candidates who came first.
🗳️ Who can vote
?
According to article L.26 of the Electoral Code, any Senegalese citizen aged 18 or over, enjoying their civil and political rights and registered on the electoral lists, can vote in the presidential election. Naturalized Senegalese foreigners who have retained no other nationality, and Senegalese foreigners who have acquired nationality by marriage are also authorized to vote, unless opposed by the government by decree.
🗳️ Who are the candidates
?
For the first time in the political history of Senegal, the outgoing president, Macky Sall, in power since 2012, is not a candidate.
According to article 28 of the Senegalese Constitution, any person who is exclusively of Senegalese nationality can be a candidate for the presidency of the Republic. Several candidates were rejected because of their dual nationality, such as Karim Wade, candidate of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), who renounced his nationality "too late".
The final list of candidates for the presidential election was made public on January 20, initially consisting of 20 names. There are only 17 competitors left after the withdrawals of Rose Wardini – following suspicions surrounding her dual Senegalese and French nationality – then of Cheikh Tidiane Dieye and Habib Sy, both in favor of the anti-system candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
Ousmane Sonko, the central figure in a standoff lasting more than two years with the state which gave rise to several episodes of deadly unrest, was excluded from the presidential race in January.
➡️ Find here our article on the four main presidential candidates.
🗳️ How were they chosen
?
To be able to run in the presidential election, candidates had to collect sponsorship from voters registered on the electoral lists.
Each candidate is entitled to three types of sponsorship according to article L.121 of the Electoral Code:
citizen sponsorship, according to which he must obtain nearly 45,000 valid sponsorships, or 0.6% of the electorate, with at least 2,000 signatures per region in seven regions, supplemented if necessary by signatures in the rest of the countries or across the diaspora, knowing that the same voter can only sponsor one candidate;
sponsorship of deputies, which requires each candidate to be sponsored by a list of 13 elected representatives of the National Assembly;
sponsorship of elected officials which provides that each candidate can be sponsored by 120 mayors or presidents of departmental councils.
Added to these sponsorships is the payment of a compulsory deposit of 30 million CFA francs (nearly 46,000 euros) to validate an application file.
🗳️ When will the results be known
?
If the first results could be known as early as the night of Sunday to Monday, it is generally necessary to wait several days before the proclamation of the official results by the Constitutional Council.
In the meantime, the results reports are sent to each departmental court, compiled and then transmitted to the regional level.
Article L.88 of the Electoral Code provides that each region then has until the Tuesday following polling day at midnight to publish its results. The proclamation of the results by the departmental census commission takes place no later than midnight on the Friday following the election, i.e. March 29 this year.
After the announcement of the provisional results, candidates have 72 hours to file an appeal.
Once the deadlines for processing appeals have been exhausted, the Constitutional Council proclaims the official results and a second round is organized if no candidate has obtained an absolute majority.
With AFP
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