APA – Dakar (Senegal) – The Constitutional Council has rejected opposition leader Ousmane Sonko’s candidacy as incomplete.
Sonko and his supporters believed in their candidacy to the end, but their dream of participating in the February 25 presidential election has come to an end. Senegal’s Constitutional Council has rejected the candidacy of the country’s main opponent of President Macky Sall’s regime.
The court said the former Pastef leader’s application was incomplete and rejected it outright. The Court’s decision was based on the absence of a certificate from the Caisse des Dépôts et des Consignations (CDC).
Initially, Ousmane Sonko’s representative had obtained a release from the CDC for the payment of his deposit, but the CDC had called him back to return the 30 million he had paid to enable the mayor of Ziguinchor (South) to participate in the presidential election.
The bailiff’s findings on the various “violations” of the law by the administration were not enough to convince the seven judges of the Constitutional Council to allow Ousmane Sonko to participate in the election.
Prior to this decision, Sonko’s participation in the presidential election had already been jeopardized by Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling. The court upheld his six-month suspended sentence for defamation and public insult of Tourism Minister Mame Mbaye Niang. According to several media, this has already put him “out of the race”.
ARD/ac/lb/abj/APA