After losing an appeal case yesterday to Mame Mbaye Niang at the Supreme Court, Ousmane Sonko has once again suffered another setback, this time inflicted on him by the Senegal Constitutional Court. In the verification process of sponsorships prior to accepting the submissions of presidential aspirants, the court has disqualified Ousmane Sonko on the grounds that his application file is incomplete.

A crucial component that is absent from Ousmane Sonko’s file is a certificate confirming that the former PASTEF leader deposited 45000 Euros at the Caisse de Consignation et de Dépots, as mandated by Senegalese electoral law. Sonko’s application for the election is denied because he is incarcerated and his attorneys were unable to provide the missing certificate five days ago.

Cire Cledor Ly, the attorney for Ousmane Sonko, stated: “President Badio Camara informed us right away that our client’s paperwork was incomplete as soon as we reached the constitutional court. This indicates that the file was opened and managed without the representative of Ousmane Sonko present. That is blatantly against the law. President Badio Camara responded to our question about what we could do to finish the file by saying that since Sonko’s files were accepted by the council, the committee had also received and reviewed the attached documents and the accompanying correspondence and had determined that there was one item missing, so there was nothing more that could be done.

It’s important to remember that Ciré Clédor Ly Ly, Sonko’s lead attorney, was not present when his file was supposed to be verified five days ago in the presence of his representatives. As a result, the verification was postponed for today.

Meanwhile, Ousmane Sonko is flatly out of the running for president on February 25, 2024, barring extremely unusual circumstances.