Hommam Al Nassim 
The Economic Community of West African States “ECOWAS” has announced its intention to deploy a presidential election observation mission to Senegal.
The group said in a statement that the mission will include 130 observers and is headed by former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, Ibrahim Agbula Gambari.
In its statement, ECOWAS welcomed the issuance of a general amnesty law in Senegal for detainees of political events that the country has witnessed since 2021
The statement also called on all parties to the electoral process to “make Senegal the real winner of the elections” and stressed the importance of “tolerance, peace and reconciliation through peaceful words and deeds”.
Senegal will hold presidential elections on March 24, with 19 candidates vying for the presidency to succeed outgoing President Macky Sall.
Among the leading candidates in the elections are the head of the ruling coalition, Amadou Ba, former Prime Minister Idrissa Seck, the former mayor of the capital, Dakar, Khalifa Sall, as well as the secretary-general of the dissolved Bastiv party, Basiro Diomay Avaí.
Opposition leader Osman Sonko vowed to help his team win the presidential election, despite a ban on him from participating in the elections.
Sonko participated in the election campaign with a public speech a day after his release from prison, where Senegal’s opposition leader, a former tax collector and mayor of the southern city of Ziguinchor, is seen as the main rival to the ruling president’s party, Macky Sall.
The UN Coordinator discusses the reconstruction and the Sudanese refugees in Benghazi