Karim Wade, the son of a former Senegalese president and currently on trial for corruption, was chosen Saturday to be the former ruling party’s candidate in the next presidential election.
No date has yet been set for the upcoming election.
The announcement comes as Senegal’s anti-corruption court is expected to deliver its verdict in the case against Wade — son of the country’s longtime leader Abdoulaye Wade — on Monday.
He is accused of corruption and illegally amassing a multi-million dollar fortune while a minister.
Saturday’s decision was made at a party congress that was attended by 88-year-old Abdoulaye Wade, who is the secretary general of the opposition Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS).
He later praised the transparency of the vote saying it had been “conducted publicly in front of party activists and even the press”.
The younger Wade, who has been in custody since April 2013 and on trial since July last year, beat at least seven other candidates to become the PDS’s presidential hopeful.
