A reform of the electoral code adopted Tuesday by the National Assembly of Senegal paves the way for a candidacy of Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko in the next presidential election, in 2029. The opposition denounces the adoption of this text which it describes as "a law tailored to the measure of a single man".

Published on: 04/28/2026 - 8:51 p.m.

Deemed ineligible for the 2024 presidential election, Ousmane Sonko can hope to participate in the next one. The National Assembly of Senegal paved the way for a candidacy by the Senegalese Prime Minister in the next presidential election in 2029, by adopting, on Tuesday April 28, a reform of the electoral code criticized by the opposition.

Ousmane Sonko was prevented from running in the February 2024 election after a conviction for defamation leading to the loss of his civil rights. He then appointed his second, the current president Bassirou Diomaye Faye, to replace him.

Read alsoIn Senegal, the new President Faye appoints Ousmane Sonko Prime Minister

Then a fierce opponent of President Macky Sall (2012-2024), Ousmane Sonko was sentenced in May 2023, on appeal, to six months of suspended imprisonment and 300,000 euros in damages for defamation, after a complaint from a minister of President Sall. The Supreme Court confirmed this conviction in January 2024, a few weeks before the election.

She then rejected, in July 2025, an appeal by Ousmane Sonko, then Prime Minister since April 2024, against this conviction, relaunching the debate on his eligibility.

Nevertheless, Ousmane Sonko was elected deputy in the legislative elections of November 2024 before renouncing his mandate to remain Prime Minister, which, for his party, means that he is eligible while local elections are planned for 2027 before the presidential election of 2029.

Read alsoPresidential election in Senegal: the Constitutional Council rejects the candidacy of Ousmane Sonko

But the opposition believes that he benefited from “fraud” to be a candidate and elected in these legislative elections.

With this law, the ruling party "is seeking additional guarantees. It wants to eliminate any form of risk against Sonko's candidacy in 2029. This law definitively paves the way for his candidacy" in this election, Alioune Tine, a figure in civil society, explained to AFP. The Constitutional Council must validate the applications.

“Personal” law

For his supporters, the amnesty voted in March 2024 to calm the political climate, after unrest between 2021 and 2024 which left dozens dead in this West African country deemed stable, erased the conviction of Ousmane Sonko for defamation.

The bill, adopted in plenary on Tuesday by a large majority, was tabled by Pastef, Ousmane Sonko's party which largely controls the National Assembly.

Also read: Legislative elections in Senegal: after Pastef's victory, is it time to settle accounts?

Its "purpose is to reorganize and clarify" cases of civic disqualification, to "limit and harmonize their duration now set at five cases from the expiration of the sentence pronounced and is "retroactive", says the text presented to the deputies.

The ruling deputy Guy Marius Sagna denounced the electoral law in force designed, according to him, "to eliminate candidates according to political interests", citing the case of Ousmane Sonko in 2024, during the debates on Tuesday.

His opposition colleague, Aïssata Tall Sall, on the contrary described the law as "personal" for the benefit of Ousmane Sonko and "dangerous for the Republic because it retroacts to erase sentences pronounced in complete sovereignty" by the courts.

The opposition coalition, FDR, denounced in a press release "a law tailored to the measure of one man", Ousmane Sonko.

With AFP

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