This controversial system requires candidates to collect at least 34,580 signatures for this poll (ie 0.5% of voters), and a maximum of 55,327 sponsorships, ie. 0.8% of registered voters. A demand categorically rejected by the opposition coalition “Yewwi Askan Wi” by Ousmane Sonko and Khalifa Sall. For their part, the majority defends a “necessity”, in order to avoid a multiplication of lists.
as reported from Dakar, Charlotte Idrac
In April last year, the ECOWAS court ordered Senegal to abolish sponsorship, in order to “remove obstacles to free participation in elections”. The leaders of “Yewwi Askan Wi” demand the application of this decision and reject a system described as “unacceptable”.
“We have a magician president when it comes to election fraud. He pulled his magic wand from his sponsorship system, which is a big political scam because everyone knows that sponsorship is just a filter to eliminate candidates and tomorrow to eliminate lists,” said Malick Gakou. chairman of the Grand Party, and a member of the Coalition Party, at a news conference on Monday.
The sponsor system was not applied in the last municipal election in January. He had already been discussed during the 2019 presidential election. But this issue is “outdated” according to Aminata Touré, commissioned by the majority coalition Benno Book Yakaar: “We can not rationally handle thousands or even millions of candidates, just as you can handle thousands of lists. . It will be necessary to have a strainer. For a party or a serious candidate, it is still not the sea to drink.
For his part, Alassane Seck, president of the Senegalese Human Rights League, calls for “peaceful discussions between the actors”, “to find an intermediate solution” with a view to peaceful elections.
