APA – Dakar (Senegal) – Members of the FDPEI have made their position known to journalists as they left the Supreme Court.
The call to scrap the exercise was made two days after the start of the electoral campaign in Senegal.
Will the presidential election take place on 24 March, as decided by President Macky Sall and the constitutional court? The Democratic Front for an Inclusive Election (FDPEI), which represents candidates who have been disqualified from running, filed a petition with the Supreme Court on 11 March asking for the election to be abandoned.
The petition, mainly backed by the Senegalese Democratic Party, concerns the decrees of 6 March calling for the election on 24 March and of 7 March setting the campaign period at 15 days.
The petitioners argue that these decrees violate Article LO 137 of the Electoral Code, which states that “the electorate shall be summoned by a decree published in the Official Journal at least eighty (80) days before the date of the election.”
However, President Sall decided to call the election campaign only 15 days before the first round.
They are also challenging the decree of 7 March, claiming that it violates Article LO 129 of the Electoral Code, which states that “the electoral campaign for the election of the President of the Republic shall begin 21 days before the first round,” and pointing out that the decree of 7 March set the electoral campaign period for the presidential election of 24 March at only 15 days before the first round.
Pending the Supreme Court’s decision, the process continues. On Monday 11 March, Prime Minister Sidiki Kaba assured the new Interior Minister, Mouhamadou Makhtar Cissé, that the electoral materials were in place.
Since Saturday, the nineteen candidates have been campaigning to woo Senegal’s 7,033,854 prospective voters.
The 338,040 Senegalese registered abroad will have access to 367 polling stations. They will exercise their civic duty at 807 polling stations.
The electoral timetable has been sent to the parties concerned.
The provisional results of the presidential election will be announced by the National Electoral Validation Commission (CNRV), chaired by the President of the Court of Appeal, no later than 1st April 2024.
The constitutional court, the main arbiter of the election, will rule within five clear days of the lodging of an appeal against the results, before announcing the final outcome of the polls.
AC/lb/as/APA