The Pastef party’s parliamentary group is taking up the issue of its leader and prime minister, Ousmane Sonko’s, eligibility. Faced with mounting speculation about his ineligibility for the 2029 presidential election, following the Supreme Court’s rejection of his appeal in the Mame Mbaye Niang case on 1st July, 2025, and the delay in reopening his trial in the same case, Mohamed Ayib Salim Daffé, president of the parliamentary group, and his colleagues decided to take action. On 2nd April, they sent a letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly proposing a bill to amend the Senegalese Electoral Code, specifically Law No 2021-35 of 23rd July, 2021. This proposal is sponsored by several members of parliament, including Ismaïla Wone, Saye Cissé, and Saliou Ndione, and signed by the parliamentary group’s president, Mohamed Ayib Salim Daffé.
It should be noted that this parliamentary initiative is part of a broader context where this reform goes beyond mere legal technicalities. In the background, the question of Ousmane Sonko’s eligibility continues to shape the debate, fuelling suspicions of a reform with a double meaning: institutional on the surface, but potentially political in its effects.
Although his reinstatement on the electoral register was formalised after the promulgation of the amnesty law, justifying his participation in the 2024 presidential election and the early legislative elections of 17th November of the same year, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko’s eligibility continues to fuel debate. This is especially true after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal.
Indeed, according to some legal experts, nothing currently prevents the Pastef leader from running in the next presidential election. Others, however, argue the opposite, relying precisely on this Supreme Court decision which, according to them, reshuffled the deck. They believe that the finality of this decision, subsequent to the amnesty law, could constitute an obstacle to the validity of Sonko’s candidacy in 2029. In this respect, the introduction of this bill by the majority parliamentary group Pastef constitutes an attempt to definitively answer the question of whether or not Sonko is eligible in 2029.
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