Dakar, February 1 (Prensa Latina) The Senegalese parliament has agreed to conduct an investigation into the decisions of the Constitutional Council regarding the presidential elections scheduled for next February 25, parliamentary sources said today.
The investigation will also include the recent exclusion of Karim Wade, the son of former President Abdellah Wade, from running for office.
The motion was reportedly put forward by MP Mamadou Lamine Thiam of the opposition parliamentary group Freedom, Democracy and Change, to examine the reasons for canceling Wade's nomination.
Thiam hinted that some members of the Constitutional Council have relationships with specific candidates and are in a clear position of conflict of interest.
For his part, Speaker of the Senegalese Parliament, Amadou Mamy Diop, announced that the investigation committee will consist of eleven people and they must submit a report on the results of their work within a maximum period of six months from its establishment.
Newly appointed Senegalese Prime Minister Amadou Bah is also the ruling party's candidate to succeed President Macky Sall in the upcoming elections.
In 2019, Karim Wade was sacked after being sentenced in 2015 to six years in prison for illicit enrichment, in what his followers described as a political maneuver by Sall to get one of his rivals out of the way.
Last July, tensions increased after it was announced that Sall was preparing a message to the country, raising speculation about his intentions regarding his possible re-election. Street clashes resulted in the deaths of 16 people.
Media report that uncertainty over the possible nomination of the president has led to increased political tension, which was also exacerbated by the trial of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who was sentenced on June 1 to two years in prison.
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