New Senegalese law opens way for PM Sonko to run for president

The Senegalese parliament approved a bill on Tuesday that opens the way for Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko to run in the next presidential vote after being thwarted last time round.

Sonko, who is popular among young voters, was favourite to win the presidential poll in February 2024 but was barred from standing after being convicted of defamation.

He was replaced on the ballot paper by his deputy, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who won outright in the first round and is now president, with Sonko as prime minister.

The reform passed on Tuesday amends Articles 29 and 30 of Senegal's electoral code, which stipulated that a defamation conviction made a candidate ineligible.

The change will allow Sonko to run for president in the next poll, in 2029.

It was backed by the ruling majority, led by Sonko's PASTEF party, but contested by the FDR opposition coalition, which includes allies of former head of state Macky Sall.

Sonko is a fierce opponent of Sall's.

As Sall was nearing the end of his mandate as president, one of his ministers filed a defamation complaint against Sonko.

The latter was sentenced in May 2023 to a six-month suspended jail term and ordered to pay 200 million CFA francs ($356,000) in damages.

The Supreme Court upheld the conviction just weeks before the 2024 presidential election.

Before Tuesday's vote, Sonko's lawyers had argued that an amnesty law passed in March 2024 had, in any case, annulled his defamation conviction.

That amnesty was passed in a bid to calm political tensions after unrest between 2021 and 2024 that left dozens dead in the normally stable west African country.

PASTEF, which introduced Tuesday's bill, holds a large majority in parliament.

The opposition complained the modification of the electoral law was "tailored" uniquely for Sonko.