Round 7.3 million Senegalese voters (out of 18 million inhabitants) are referred to as to vote on Sunday March 24 to elect their fifth President of the Republic. That is the twelfth presidential election for the reason that nation’s independence in 1960.
This election was on the coronary heart of a political disaster in February after President Macky Sall determined to cancel the vote, triggering demonstrations repressed by safety forces. The vote was subsequently postponed for ten months by a vote of the Nationwide Meeting. After a month of hesitation which alarmed nationwide opinion and a part of the worldwide neighborhood, the date of the presidential election was lastly set for March 24 – earlier than the expiration of Macky Sall’s mandate – after a choice by the Council constitutional.
🗳️ What’s the voting methodology ?
In Senegal, the President of the Republic is elected by direct common suffrage and by single-member majority voting in two rounds. Because the constitutional referendum of 2016, the period of his mandate is 5 years, renewable solely as soon as.
To win within the first spherical, a candidate should receive an absolute majority (greater than 50% of the votes). If not one of the candidates achieves this rating, a second spherical is organized inside two weeks following the announcement of the outcomes with a purpose to resolve between the 2 candidates who got here first.
🗳️Who can vote ?
In response to article L.26 of the Electoral Code, any Senegalese citizen aged 18 or over, having fun with their civil and political rights and registered on the electoral lists, can vote within the presidential election. Naturalized Senegalese foreigners who’ve retained no different nationality, and Senegalese foreigners who’ve acquired nationality by marriage are additionally approved to vote, except opposed by the federal government by decree.
🗳️ Who’re the candidates ?
For the primary time within the political historical past of Senegal, the outgoing president, Macky Sall, in energy since 2012, will not be a candidate.
In response to article 28 of the Senegalese Structure, any one that is solely of Senegalese nationality could be a candidate for the presidency of the Republic. A number of candidates had been rejected due to their twin nationality, resembling Karim Wade, candidate of the Senegalese Democratic Social gathering (PDS), who renounced his nationality “too late”.
The ultimate record of candidates for the presidential election was made public on January 20, initially consisting of 20 names. There are solely 17 opponents left after the withdrawals of Rose Wardini – following suspicions surrounding her twin Senegalese and French nationality – then of Cheikh Tidiane Dieye and Habib Sy, each in favor of the anti-system candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
Ousmane Sonko, the central determine in a standoff lasting greater than two years with the state which gave rise to a number of episodes of lethal unrest, was excluded from the presidential race in January.
➡️ Discover right here our article on the 4 predominant presidential candidates.
🗳️ How had been they chosen ?
To have the ability to run within the presidential election, candidates needed to gather sponsorship from voters registered on the electoral lists.
Every candidate is entitled to 3 varieties of sponsorship based on article L.121 of the Electoral Code:
- citizen sponsorship, based on which he should receive almost 45,000 legitimate sponsorships, or 0.6% of the citizens, with no less than 2,000 signatures per area in seven areas, supplemented if mandatory by signatures in the remainder of the nations or throughout the diaspora, understanding that the identical voter can solely sponsor one candidate;
- sponsorship of deputies, which requires every candidate to be sponsored by an inventory of 13 elected representatives of the Nationwide Meeting;
- sponsorship of elected officers which offers that every candidate will be sponsored by 120 mayors or presidents of departmental councils.
Added to those sponsorships is the cost of a obligatory deposit of 30 million CFA francs (almost 46,000 euros) to validate an software file.
🗳️ When will the outcomes be recognized ?
If the primary outcomes may very well be often known as early because the night time of Sunday to Monday, it’s usually mandatory to attend a number of days earlier than the proclamation of the official outcomes by the Constitutional Council.
Within the meantime, the outcomes reviews are despatched to every departmental courtroom, compiled after which transmitted to the regional stage.
Article L.88 of the Electoral Code offers that every area then has till the Tuesday following polling day at midnight to publish its outcomes. The proclamation of the outcomes by the departmental census fee takes place no later than midnight on the Friday following the election, i.e. March 29 this 12 months.
After the announcement of the provisional outcomes, candidates have 72 hours to file an enchantment.
As soon as the deadlines for processing appeals have been exhausted, the Constitutional Council proclaims the official outcomes and a second spherical is organized if no candidate has obtained an absolute majority.
