The two leading candidates out of 19 contenders in the first round of voting are: former prime minister Amadou Ba who is 62; his main opponent and radical nationalist Bassirou Diomaye Faye is 44...

Bassirou Diomaye Faye standing in for the barred Ousmane Sonko was still on remand in jail when the campaign kicked off (AC Vol 65 No 4 Fury as Sall's vote delay unleashes mayhem)...

But his colleague Bassirou Diomaye Faye is still eligible although he is also in jail...

Expecting such problems Sonko's campaign team lined up a stand-in Bassirou Diomaye Faye also a former tax inspector and secretary-general of his officially dissolved Patriotes Africains du Sénégal pour le Travail l'Ethique et la Fraternité (Pastef) movement...

Now definitively excluded from the presidential race the imprisoned Ousmane Sonko waits to learn whether his stand-in Bassirou Diomaye Faye will be allowed out of jail to campaign in person (Dispatches 23/1/24 Prime Minister Ba is poll favourite after court rules out Ousmane Sonko)...

As a back-up the ex-Pastef camp has also submitted nomination papers for its alternative candidate the movement's general secretary Bassirou Diomaye Faye a political scientist from Gaston Berger University in St Louis...