The head of Senegal’s Constitutional Council, Mamadou Badio Camara has died on Thursday, April 10, in Dakar.
This seasoned magistrate, who played a decisive role during the 2024 electoral crisis, passed away as the country embarked on a reform of its institutional architecture.
Camara was 73.
The announcement of his passing was confirmed by El Hadj Aya Boun Malick Diop, Secretary General of the Union of Justice Workers (SYTJUST).
“We regret to announce the passing of Mr. Mamadou Badio Camara, President of the Constitutional Council. His death occurred this Thursday in Dakar. May God grant him His forgiveness and welcome him into His paradise,” he declared, as quoted by several local media outlets.
A seasoned judge and former president of the Supreme Court and the High Council of the Judiciary, Mamadou Badio Camara was appointed head of the Constitutional Council in 2021. He has left a
decisive mark on the country’s recent political history.
In February 2024, when President Macky Sall controversially postponed the presidential election by ten months with the support of a parliamentary majority, it was under Badio Camara’s leadership that the Constitutional Council ruled this decision as unconstitutional. The institution demanded a new timetable, forcing President Sall to hold the election on March 25, 2024, which resulted in the victory of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the candidate nominated by opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.
In a speech delivered in Paris in October 2024, during the “Night of Law,” Mamadou Badio Camara stated that the Council had also issued a strong opinion against the possibility of a third term for Mr. Sall.
He emphasised that this opinion, although not public, had helped dissuade President Sall from running again.
Often criticised by sections of the political class, particularly the opposition, the Constitutional Council is losing its president at a pivotal moment. Last Saturday, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye
reaffirmed his desire to replace the current Constitutional Council with a Constitutional Court, as part of a comprehensive institutional reform.
“To date, the draft organic law relating to the Constitutional Court, the draft revision of the Constitution, and the draft organic law relating to the High Council of the Judiciary, as well as the related implementing decrees, have been finalized and submitted for approval,” the Senegalese head of state stated.
Camara’s death therefore comes at the heart of this institutional transition, and marks the departure of a central figure in the preservation of constitutional order during a period of strong political tensions in Senegal.
ODL/ac/Sf/fss/as/APA