Senegal's main opposition candidate sidelined from presidential race

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
21 Jan 2024 09:34
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Senegal's Constitutional Council released a list of all presidential candidates for the upcoming elections, excluding opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who is currently still jailed.

Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko addresses journalists following his release from police custody in Dakar, Senegal, on March 8, 2021. (AP)

On Saturday, Senegal's Constitutional Council released a list of all presidential candidates for the upcoming elections on February 25. The list constitutes 20 names but excludes opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, currently incarcerated, and Karim Wade, the son of ex-president Abdoulaye Wade.

Wade served as Prime Minister when his father took office but has been excluded from running for the presidency because of his dual nationality. This is because the law states that candidates must be Senegalese only, aged between 25 and 70, to be viable for the presidency.

The list included current prime minister Amadou Ba, nominated by current president Macky Sall, who announced that this would be his last term in office. Entrepreneur Anta Babacar Ngom and gynecologist Rose Wardini were the only two women on the list.

Former PMs and rivals Idrissa Seck and Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, and former mayor of Dakar Khalifa Sall and Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, were also listed to substitute Sonko. Faye was a member of Sonko's disintegrated party and is currently jailed as well, but has not gone to trial yet.

Who is Ousmane Sonko?

Sonko previously ran for the presidential elections and came in third as he garnered support from Senegal's youth for his pan-Africanist ideology that challenged France's colonial influence in the country.

However, his narratives put him in a deadlock against the state, leading to intense, even fatal, disruption within Senegal.

In June, Sonko was detained under charges of corruption of the youth, and later in July, additional charges were raised against him, including calling for insurrection, conspiracy with terrorist groups, and endangering state security. On his part, Sonko denied all charges and accused the state of intentionally sabotaging him to prevent his legitimate candidacy for the presidential elections in February.

When Sonko was detained, clashes broke out between police and protesters, buses were set alight in the capital Dakar, and disturbances were reported elsewhere including the city of Ziguinchor, where he had been mayor since 2022.

Ousmane Sonko previously warned of "indescribable chaos" if he is blocked from running in February's elections.

"There will be no elections in this country, or there will be indescribable chaos if President Macky Sall uses judicial tricks to prevent my candidacy," Sonko said in a virtual interview for the French outlet France 24 in July.