There were so many candidates including major names such as Aliou Mamadou Dia of the Islamist Parti de l'unité et du rassemblement (PUR) former Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall and Rewmi party chief Idrissa Seck – who had been runner-up in 2019 with 20...

That was exemplified by Sonko's highly questionable jail term for defaming a minister and previously by the six-year sentence imposed on Khalifa Sall for political misuse of municipal funds to prevent him challenging Macky in the 2019 presidential contest...

He played a key role in knitting the Yewwi Askan Wi alliance with Khalifa Sall the former Dakar mayor which captured most of Senegal's main cities and towns in the January 2022 municipal polls and won 56 seats in the July parliamentary elections of the same year...

Among other contenders are the former Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall and the former premier and Rewmi (nation in Wolof) party chief Idrissa Seck and erstwhile members of the administration who have fallen out with the president or have been sacked: such as Aly Ngouille Ndiaye and Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne...

Politicians such as Thierno Alassane Sall Déthié Fall and Khalifa Sall also feature strongly in the media landscape...

Khalifa Sall has also tried to appeal to Mouride electors praising the role of the Khalife of the brotherhood...

Many have concentrated on community canvassing and touring their strongholds: such as Thiès for Idrissa Seck and Dakar for Khalifa Sall...

Last June a deal at the national dialogue talks allowed Wade and former Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall to run for the presidency despite convictions for financial offences...

Former mayor of Dakar and now leading oppositionist Khalifa Sall dismisses it as 'serving no purpose'...

First round support for Faye could be eroded by the presence of three other Sonko acolytes Cheikh Tidiane Dieye Habib Sy and Déthié Fall while former Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall onetime oil minister Thierno Alassane Sall and political perennial Idrissa Seck – runner up in 2019 – all hope to make an impression...

Besides Sonko the strongest opposition challenger is former Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall who has been on the campaign trail for months...

Probably the most potent of the other contenders in the presidential race is the former mayor of Dakar Khalifa Sall now permitted to stand despite a past conviction for financial misappropriation...

For now with Sonko in jail battling to overcome the legal obstacles to candidacy many of his supporters view Khalifa Sall's decision to just forge ahead with his own presidential run as selling out his former allies...

It is quite possible that many of Sonko's youthful supporters will not bother to turn out if their man is shut out of the race – even for ex-Pastef's Faye and certainly not for former ally Khalifa Sall...

Lacking any electoral experience save for a bruising defeat at the hands of Khalifa Sall in Dakar in 2009 Wade stayed in exile in Qatar unsure whether he wanted to run...

BBY's wrangles are a gift to its opponents such as former Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall who is already on the stump...

Khalifa Sall is also likely to benefit if as expected Ousmane Sonko nominally his partner in the Yewwi Askan Wi alliance is not allowed to stand (AC Vol 64 No 11 Sonko's trial is Sall's challenge)...

With uncertainty over Ousmane Sonko's future the 2024 polls are shaping up to be a four-way battle between Seck Khalifa Sall Karim Wade and Prime Minister Amadou Ba who last week was anointed by outgoing President Sall as candidate for the ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) party...