Senegal: Protests as opposition leader’s conviction clouds mooted presidential run
0
0
At least one fatality and dozens of injuries have been reported in Dakar, Senegal after an opposition figure called for civil disobedience. This followed the looming prospect of Ousamane Sonko being barred from contesting the presidential elections.
Sonko was handed a six-month suspended jail sentence that effectively eliminates him from the 2024 elections. This would significantly alter the contest, which is the underlying angst that ignited protests. Monday’s conviction throws his candidacy under a cloud, which saw an appeal court increase a sentence of two months suspended, handed down in March, for defaming one of the members of Senegal’s cabinet ministers.
Sonko claims the judiciary is being used to sideline him from the vote. He finished third in the 2019 presidential election against President Macky Sall. He intends to stand again next year. Sonko is also facing trial later this month for alleged rape and intimidation over a complaint filed by an employee at a beauty salon where he went for a massage. When charges of rape were filed against him, it triggered riots that left at least 12 people dead.
“The people have to mobilise to support Ousmane Sonko in this fight,” Khalifa Sall (who has no relation to President Sall), one of the coalition chiefs, told a press conference on Tuesday. He joined other heads of the Yewwi Askan Wi alliance in urging followers to turn out in force for an already-scheduled rally due this Friday, and for another protest a week later, on May 19.
The ruling party accuses Sonko of seeking to paralyse the country and of drumming up anger on the streets in a bid to escape justice.
Political tensions have also been stoked by President Macky Sall not ruling out running for a third term as president, a move his opponents say would be unconstitutional.
