To take part in the debate, we remind you that you should comply with our Ethics charter. You can simply send us a comment below or a longer article. Regarding the articles, in particular, please send them to us with a short biographical note and send them to the following address: afriquedestinations2021@gmail.com
TOPIC: Just days after the re-election of President Macky Sall, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) issued a landmark decision. “The Court decides that the political groups and citizens of Senegal who cannot stand for election due to the modification of the electoral law [in 2018] must be restored to their rights by abolishing the sponsorship system, which constitutes a real obstacle to the freedom and secrecy of the exercise of the right to vote, on the one hand, and a serious attack on the right to participate in elections as a candidate, on the other hand. ". This was the decision of ECOWAS on April 29, 2021, the day after the presidential election of April 11, 2021 in Benin, which de facto excluded all opposition candidates because of sponsorship under the same conditions as in Senegal. Should it be emphasized that the Liberal Social Union (USL) had not had a follow-up to its referral to the ECOWAS Court of Justice in emergency proceedings a few weeks before the presidential election which had allowed President Macky Sall to be re-elected in the first round with more than 58% of the vote in 2019, like President Patrice Talon in 2021.
QUESTION: What do you think of African countries which, for legislative or presidential elections, require candidates to be forced to obtain sponsorships under the socio-political conditions which are those of the African regimes that we know? And are political opponents and other citizens right in claiming that this is predatory legislation that violates the civil and political rights of citizens in that it does not meet the guarantees of legal certainty and constitutes, as ECOWAS says, "a real obstacle to the freedom and secrecy of the exercise of the right to vote, on the one hand, and a serious violation of the right to participate in elections"?
By The Editorial Board
