Senegal's political uncertainty risks deterring foreign investment
- Senegal has attracted increasing amounts of foreign direct investment in recent years. How could this election postponement affect that?
- How has ECOWAS responded to the postponement, and will it affect relations in the short term?
On Saturday, February 3rd, Senegalese president Macky Sall postponed the country’s presidential election indefinitely in a surprise announcement only three weeks before the first round of voting. In a televised address, President Sall reiterated that he would not run again but that the postponement was necessary for a more inclusive and transparent process concerning the eligibility of presidential candidates.
Prior to this, on January 20th, a list of 20 presidential candidates was released, albeit with some prominent candidates left out. Karim Wade, son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, was disqualified for being a dual Senegalese and French national, even though he has renounced his French citizenship, and a law by the National Assembly clears the way for him to contest.
Ousmane Sonko, a former tax inspector and mayor of Zinguichor in Senegal’s South-East, was also disqualified due to a libel conviction. Sonko and his supporters insist the sentence is politically
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