After the end of incumbent President Macky Sall's second term, Senegalese voters are heading to the polls to elect a new president.
Sal will not be competing in the race, which will be held despite unsuccessful attempts to postpone it until December. His ruling coalition supports former Prime Minister Amadou Ba.
Meanwhile, popular opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who was disqualified from running after a defamation conviction, has backed former tax inspector Basilu Diomai Faye.
If none of the 19 candidates receives more than 50% of the votes, a runoff election will be held.
Searle's popularity is wavering
Sall's largely uneventful tenure since 2012 has recently been disrupted by his decision to postpone a vote that was scheduled to take place last month.
He initially wanted to postpone the election to December, effectively extending his term.
But Senegal's Constitutional Council declared Sall's postponement of the election invalid, saying it would be unconstitutional to adjust the voting date after his term expires on April 2.
Mr. Sall's attempt to postpone sparked deadly protests and street riots, but the country, considered a rare example of democratic stability in coup-prone West Africa, also recently Scenes like this are repeated over and over again.
The ongoing violence since 2021 was mainly caused by the conflict between the ruling government and Mr. Sonko.
Sonko, long seen as President Macky Sall's main opponent, was sentenced to two years in prison last summer after a court found him guilty of “corrupting young people.”
His sentence sparked deadly clashes in Senegal, with supporters, many of them young, taking to the streets across the country and confronting security officials.
Sonko was released from prison last week ahead of the country's presidential election.
rmt/wd (dpa, Reuters)
