EU Election Observation Mission, Republic of Senegal, 2024 presidential election: Preliminary Statement

The mission, led by chief observer Malin Bjork and deploying 100 observers from the 27 EU member states plus Canada, Norway and Switzerland, visited 406 polling stations and assessed voting as very good in 71 per cent and good in 29 per cent of them, with the layout guaranteeing the secrecy of the vote in 98 per cent and results sheets posted outside 44 of the 45 stations where counting was observed; in one station in four it found counting procedures had not been sufficiently mastered. It records that the process was disrupted by the postponement announced on 3 February, by protests that the mission reports occasioned four deaths, by mobile internet suspensions, by the withdrawal of the Walfadjri group's broadcasting licence on 4 February and its restoration on 11 February, by a campaign shortened to 14 days instead of the 21 required by the Electoral Code, and by the release of Ousmane Sonko and candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye on 14 March. It reports 7,371,890 registered voters including 338,040 abroad, 16,440 polling stations of which 807 abroad in 50 countries, 269 sponsorship forms collected and 93 candidacies filed of which 21 passed the sponsorship filter, and 2,462 accredited observers from 65 international and 10 national missions, including 130 from ECOWAS and 40 from the African Union. It calls the effect of the sponsorship verification order a significant infringement of equality between candidates.