Senegal’s parliament has passed a proposal that effectively restored the right of two key opposition deputies to run in the country’s presidential election next year.
Passed on Saturday evening by 124 votes to one, the vote cleared any person convicted but then either pardoned or amnestied to run for office.
That cleared the way for Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade, who would otherwise have been ineligible for Senegal’s presidential election in February 2024.
Sall, a former mayor of Dakar, and Wade, son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, are both considered leading contenders.
They were prevented from running in the last presidential election in 2019 because of separate convictions for financial crimes.
The man who won that vote, Macky Sall, is now coming to the end of his second term in office. Last month he finally ended months of speculation by announcing that he would not seek a third term, which legal experts said would be unconstitutional.
Some observers are hopeful that parliament’s decision will help ease the tension that has gripped Senegal in recent months.
RFI
