On Tuesday, a Senegalese interior ministry department declined to grant the electoral commission’s request to put opposition lawmaker Ousmane Sonko back on the voter rolls and provide him with documents necessary for his presidential bid in 2024.
The Directorate General of Elections stated that it “has no jurisdiction to take any action on the electoral roll” in response to a letter from the Autonomous National Electoral Commision (Cena).
Who has this authority is not made clear by the DGE.
The Cena had stated that Mr. Sonko ought to “enjoy his status as a voter registered on the electoral roll with all the rights (that are) attached” in a letter to the DGE.
As a result of his removal from the electoral record, Mr. Sonko is unable to run for president. In essence, the government contended that Mr. Sonko’s exclusion from the voter list was warranted by his conviction in absentia in a vice case in June. Mr. Sonko, who has been imprisoned since the end of July on unrelated charges, claimed that these cases were attempts to prevent him from running for president.
On October 12, a judge in the southern town of Ziguinchor issued an order disbarring Mr. Sonko, a prominent figure in the nation’s political life.
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On October 12, a Ziguinchor (southern Senegal) judge issued an order restoring Mr. Sonko’s listing on the lists. Mr. Sonko is the main character in a tumultuous and violent political and judicial drama with the State that has left Senegal in limbo for the past 2.5 years.
But the Ministry of the Interior has not yet provided him with the official paperwork he needs to obtain his sponsorships, which is a prerequisite for filing his candidature.
The Cena Organisation “invites the Direction générale des élections to take the necessary measures to ensure that the sponsorship form is made available to Mr Ousmane Sonko’s representative as soon as possible” , according to the letter.
The DGE stated in its publicly available answer that it had not provided the forms to Mr. Sonko’s attorneys as he was not included in the lists—a claim that was affirmed by the Supreme Court on October 6.
The Cena oversees and manages the entire election process, from list registration to the announcement of the preliminary results. The Ministry of the Interior is in charge of organising the elections.
A Cena representative did acknowledge to AFP, though, that the commision was unable to force the interior ministry to comply.
The rejection to provide Mr. Sonko with sponsorship documents was contested by his attorneys on Tuesday in front of the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of African States (ECOWAS).
The regional court has agreed to extend its deadline for resolving any disagreements pertaining to this matter until November 6.
