On Tuesday, October 31, a department of the Senegalese Ministry of the Interior rejected the request of the electoral commission to reinstate opponent Ousmane Sonko on the electoral lists and to issue him essential documents for his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.
In a response to a letter from the Autonomous National Electoral Commission (CENA), the General Directorate of Elections (DGE) affirms that it “does not have the competence to carry out any action on the electoral register”. The DGE does not specify who has this competence. In its letter to the DGE, the CENA wrote that Mr. Sonko must “enjoy his status as a voter registered on the electoral lists with all the rights [that are] attached to it”.
Mr. Sonko was removed from the electoral rolls, which currently prevents him from competing in the presidential election. The government essentially argued that the opponent was convicted in absentia in a morals case in June to justify his removal. Ousmane Sonko, imprisoned since the end of July on other charges, denounces these affairs as plots aimed at removing him from the presidential election.
Challenge before the ECOWAS court of justice
A judge in Ziguinchor ordered on October 12 that Mr. Sonko, at the heart of a turbulent and violent political-judicial saga that has kept Senegal in suspense for two and a half years, be reinstated on the lists. However, the Ministry of the Interior has until now refused to issue him with the official forms which would allow him to collect his sponsorships, a necessary step in submitting an application.
The CENA “invites the General Directorate of Elections to take the necessary measures to make the sponsorship form available to the representative of Mr. Ousmane Sonko as soon as possible,” she said in her letter. In its response made public, the DGE states that, if it did not give the forms to Mr. Sonko’s representatives, it is because he did not appear on the lists, a position confirmed on October 6 by the Supreme Court, she emphasizes.
The CENA controls and supervises the electoral process, from registration on the lists to the provisional proclamation of the results. The elections are organized by the Ministry of the Interior. A spokesperson for the CENA, however, admitted to Agence France-Presse that the commission could not constrain the Ministry of the Interior.
Mr. Sonko’s lawyers also challenged on Tuesday the refusal to issue him sponsorship forms before the court of justice of the Economic Community of African States (ECOWAS). The regional court has decided to give itself until November 6 to resolve disputes related to this case.
