The Senegalese Constitutional Council on Saturday released a final list of 20 presidential candidates expected to take part in the West African country’s 2024 election, notably excluding leading opposition candidate Ousmane Sonko. 

The list of council-approved candidates includes incumbent President Macky Sall’s chosen successor, Prime Minister Amadou Ba, as well as former heads of government Idrissa Seck and Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, and former mayor of the country’s capital Dakar, Khalifa Sall. The final list also puts forward two women, gynecologist Rose Wardini and Anta Babacar Ngom, an entrepreneur. 

In addition to Sonko, a notable absence is Karim Wade, the son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, who served as the country’s head of state from 2000-2012. Karim Wade was deemed ineligible owing to his dual nationality. At the time of submitting his candidacy, Wade held both French and Senegalese citizenship, though he has since renounced the former. 

Sonko, who first ran in the 2019 presidential election where he placed third, has been a major figure of the Senegalese opposition against President Sall. He was arrested in 2019 following sexual assault allegations and sentenced to two years imprisonment in June 2023. Both his arrest and subsequent conviction have sparked mass protests and rioting in Senegal, in particular amongst Senegalese youth, with whom his pan-Africanist message and anti-France (Senegal’s former colonial power) stance have resonated. 

Sonko has been imprisoned since July when additional charges for inciting insurrections, conspiracy, and terrorism were leveled against him. He has repeatedly denied the charges and maintained his innocence, asserting that the charges are part of a larger smear campaign intended to prevent him from running in the country’s February elections. 

The Constitutional Council, however, said that Sonko was ineligible due to his criminal convictions. 

Amid growing fear that Sonko’s exclusion from the upcoming election could incite further civil unrest in the form of protests and rioting, incumbent President Sall announced in July that he will not rely on a 2016 constitutional reform that would allow him to extend his term a third time; he was first elected in 2012 for seven years and re-elected in 2019. Variations of the 2016 reform have been used by other leaders in the region, in the Ivory Coast and Togo, to “reset” their mandate and extend their rules. 

The election is set to take place on February 25. The winner will take over power from President Sall.