One of Sonko’s lawyers, Bamba Cisse, said that “above all, it was a question of respecting the right to vote. The Senegalese people want to vote for a candidate of their choice and freely choose their president”. 

Ousmane Sonko was struck off the electoral roll after being sentenced in June to two years’ imprisonment for morally corrupting a young person.

He has been at the centre of a stand-off with the state that has lasted more than two years and sparked several episodes of deadly unrest.

In ordering Sonko’s reinstatement, the judge in the capital Dakar confirmed a ruling in October by a court in Ziguinchor, the southern city where Sonko is mayor.

Last month, the West African nation’s top court had disagreed with that regional court ruling.

But it nevertheless decided that Sonko’s case should go back to the Dakar court.

Sonko now has until 26^th December to present his candidacy for the February poll and obtain the necessary sponsorships.

Jubilant supporters of Sonko who is particularly popular among the under-20s that make up half the population were in court on Thursday and shouted his name after the ruling.

One of his lawyers, Cire Cledor Ly, said the state could lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court but that would not stop Thursday’s decision being implemented immediately.

“The electoral code is very clear. When the judge gives his decision, this decision must be immediately carried out,” he said.

Sonko, 49, was convicted in absentia on 1^st June of morally corrupting a young person and sentenced to two years in prison.

He condemned the trial as a plot to exclude him from the presidential election.

In late July, he was arrested on other charges including fomenting insurrection, criminally associating with a terrorist body and endangering state security.

He has periodically been on hunger strikes since then.

Africanews/Hauwa M

A court in the southern province of Sabha ruled in favor of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, Libyan media outlets reported.

For almost a week, the court had been unable to convene to hear the appeal after the buildi ng was surrounded by armed men who prevented judges from entering.

Last week, Libya’s High National Elections Committee had disqualified him, citing past convictions linked to using violence against protesters. The candidate had appealed the ruling.

The first round of voting is meant to start on 24^th December, though a number of divisive issues need to be resolved before then.

It remains unclear whether any further legal challenges could be made to Seif al-Islam’s candidacy.

In a Twitter post late Thursday, he thanked the judges for risking their personal safety, saying they had done so “in the name of truth.” He also thanked his family and supporters.

The election comes after years of U.N.-led attempts to usher in a more democratic future and end the country’s civil war.

Libya has been wracked by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Over the past decade, the oil-rich nation had been split between a government in the east, backed by powerful commander Khalifa Hifter, and a U.N.-supported administration in Tripoli, aided by western-based Libyan militias.

Each side has also had the support of mercenaries and foreign forces from Turkey, Russia and Syria and different regional powers.

Seif al-Islam had been sentenced to death by a Tripoli court in 2015 for using violence against protesters in the 2011 uprising against his father, though that ruling has since been called into question by Libya’s rival authorities.

He is also wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity related to the uprising.

The upcoming vote faces many challenges, including disputes over the laws governing the elections and occasional infighting among armed groups.

Other obstacles include the deep rift that remains between the country’s east and west and the presence of thousands of foreign fighters and troops.

Libya is currently governed by an interim government that was elected by Libyan delegates after U.N.-led talks in Geneva in February.

Several other high-profile figures have filed their candidacy documents, including Hifter, and the country’s interim prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah.

In recent days, local courts have been looking into several appeals against candidates.

Also, the country’s high election commission said that armed men had attacked four different polling stations in the town of Azizia and one in the capital of Tripoli.

The commission said they stole or destroyed over 2,000 voting cards, that eligible voters are expected to carry on the election day.

africanews

Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke held that the agency failed to prove the elements of the offences for which it charged the lawmaker.

Nwaoboshi, a Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, represents Delta North in the upper chamber.

The judge also discharged Nwaoboshi’s two firms, Golden Touch Construction Project Limited and Suiming Electrical Limited on the same ground.

The defendants were arraigned in 2018 before Justice Mohammed Idris who was later elevated to the Court of Appeal.

They were then re-arraigned before Justice Aneke on October 5, 2018.

In the two-count charge marked FHC/L/117C/18., the EFCC alleged that the defendants committed the offence between May and June 2014, in Lagos.

Nwaoboshi was said to have acquired a property described as Guinea House, Marine Road, in Apapa Lagos, for the sum of N805million.

The prosecution said he “reasonably ought to have known that N322million out of the purchase sum formed part of proceeds of an unlawful act”.

The sum was said to have been transferred to the vendors by order of Suiming Electrical Ltd.

Suiming Electrical was alleged to have on May 14, 2014, aided Nwaoboshi and Golden Touch to commit money laundering.

However, Justice Aneke held, among others, that the prosecution’s case collapsed because “bank officials were not called to testify.”

The Nation