Senegal’s Constitutional Court on Monday authorised five candidates, including outgoing head of state Macky Sall, to contest presidential elections next month but blocked two prominent opposition figures.
The seven-member court barred, as expected, former Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall and ex-minister Karim Wade because of convictions for misuse of funds.
The four other candidates in the February 24 vote will be a rising opposition MP, Ousmane Sonko; former prime minister Idrissa Seck; Madicke Niang, an associate of former president Abdoulaye Wade; and El Hadji Sall, of the Unity and Assembly Party (PUR).
The list published on Monday was provisional, and candidates have until January 20 to file any appeal.
President Sall, who is not related to the two other men bearing that name, was elected in 2012, taking the helm of one of West Africa’s most prosperous and stable countries.
