National Assembly: President Bassirou Diomaye Faye requests a second reading of the law amending the Electoral Code

Adopted on April 28, 2026, the law modifying the conditions of ineligibility and registration on the electoral lists was sent back for second reading by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, after the transmission of two contradictory versions of the text.

The President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, referred the matter to the National Assembly for a second reading of Law No. 11/2026 amending the Electoral Code, adopted on Tuesday April 28, 2026. The Presidency indicates having received two different versions of the same text. The President of the National Assembly, El Malick Ndiaye, acknowledged the existence of a material error in the first version, linked to the integration of the amendments, specifying that a corrected version had been transmitted after consultation with the Presidency services.

Basically, the reform is carried by the majority group PASTEF-Les Patriotes. It modifies law n°2021-35 of July 23, 2021 relating to the Electoral Code, with the aim of clarifying and rebalancing the rules governing exclusion from electoral lists and cases of ineligibility.

In its explanatory memorandum, the legislator points out the potential abuses of excessive recourse to ineligibilities, likely to disproportionately restrict the exercise of civil rights. The new law intends to respond to this with a system that it describes as more readable, targeted and proportionate.

The central part of the text, the new article L.29, completely rewritten, limits cases of exclusion from electoral lists to precisely defined situations. This now concerns individuals convicted of crime, as well as those who have received a prison sentence of more than one month for a series of serious offenses: theft, fraud, breach of trust, extortion of funds, misuse of company assets, embezzlement, embezzlement involving public funds, illicit enrichment, corruption, extortion, influence peddling, illegal taking of interests, forgery and use of forgery, counterfeiting or money laundering.

The deprivation of civil rights, including the right to vote, would also be limited to five years from the execution of the sentence.

The text also proceeds with the pure and simple deletion of article L.30, which provided in particular for ineligibility in the event of conviction of a fine greater than 200,000 CFA francs. This provision, considered too broad, therefore disappears from the Electoral Code.

The second reading should therefore make it possible to decide on the final version of the text before its promulgation.

Djibril DIAO