Senegal opposition storms over dual nationality rule
President Macky Sall has long declared his candidacy for a second and last mandate. PHOTO|FILE
What you need to know:
- Among other things, the law stipulates that a presidential hopeful with a dual nationality should renounce the foreign one five years before the poll.
- The next presidential poll is billed for 2019.
Dakar. Senegalese opposition politicians are at loggerheads with government over a law banning presidential candidates with dual nationalities.
Among other things, the law stipulates that a presidential hopeful with a dual nationality should renounce the foreign one five years before the poll.
The next presidential poll is billed for 2019.
Justice ministry officials said the new requirement, announced early this week, takes place immediately.
The law was voted by the majority ruling coalition parliamentarians almost a month ago.
However, Senegal’s only Christian opposition party leader of Cape Verdean origins Jean-Paul Diaz, described the law as “illegal and segregationist”.
Former President Abdoulaye Wade too opposes the law banning dual nationals from running for the presidency.
He and his two predecessors all held a French nationality when they ruled Senegal over the last 52 years.
Mr Wade justified their dual nationality on the fact that they were all born before independence when the country was then considered a French territory.
But Mr Wade’s argument can no longer hold for his son and other younger candidates with dual nationalities that have declared their intention to run for the presidency in 2019.
Besides holding French citizenship, former presidents Leopold Sedar Senghor, Abdou Diouf and Wade were married to women of non-Senegalese origins.
They all left the country after standing down and resided in France.
Analysts say the law was purposely designed to eliminate stronger candidates like Karim Wade and the disgraced former premier Abdoul Mbaye who hold the French citizenship.
Karim Wade has been granted a presidential pardon but was still being pursued for swindling millions of dollars.
Mr Mbaye was President Macky Sall’s first premier in 2012 but fell out barely a year later over alleged ineptitude.
He has since formed his political party with an eye on the presidency.
Early this month, a Dakar court indicted Mr Mbaye for allegedly forging his marital certificate. His estranged wife sued him arguing that they signed a monogamous status but he forged the document to allow him take a second wife.
Mr Mbaye was slammed a travel ban and his passport seized on Thursday night. (NMG)
