Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the former Chief of Staff during President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure, has been appointed as the leader of a 120-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Election Observation Mission (EOM) to monitor the presidential election in Senegal on March 24, 2024. This is a crucial election that was initially scheduled for February 25, 2024, and it features 19 presidential candidates, including one woman.
The ECOWAS Election Observation Mission is made up of 120 members, including 14 Long-Term Observers (LTOs) and 106 Short-Term Observers, drawn from various sectors such as government ministries, electoral commissions, civil society organizations, and the ECOWAS Parliament.
The mission aims to ensure the adherence to democratic principles and best practices and support and monitor the electoral process in Senegal. The mission emphasizes key aspects of the electoral process, including constitutional and electoral laws, conflict management, gender inclusivity, and media coverage.
Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah and Mr. Serigne Ka lead the technical team that provides logistical and technical support to the mission. Senegal was one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to hold multi-party presidential elections in 1978 before the wave of democratic transition in the 1990s.
This year’s election has 338,040 registered Senegalese voters in the diaspora. The country has continued to hold presidential and legislative elections, sometimes marked by political tensions, but without significant threats to the stability of the country’s institutions.
Electioneering for the upcoming election started on Sunday, March 9. Voting officially opens from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in 15,633 polling units of the 6,341 polling centres spread across the country’s 14 regions, including the capital Dakar. The 19 presidential candidates cleared by the Constitutional Council include Amadou Ba, former Prime Minister, veteran opposition leader Idrissa Seck, and former Dakar Mayor Khalifa Sall.