The rupture is consummated. Yewwi Askan Wi, the main opposition coalition in Senegal announced in a statement on Wednesday August 9 “the end of its companionship” with Taxawu Senegal, the political movement of the former mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall. The party is accused of “collusion” with the presidential movement, “forfeiture” and “treason”. The current mayor of the capital, Barthélémy Dias, right arm of Khalifa Sall, reacted by denouncing “a manifest desire to demonize” his political formation.
Founded in 2021, a few months before the municipal elections, the Yewwi Askan Wi coalition had so far shown resilience. But the divorce had been brewing for several months, fueled by a latent war between the two opposition heavyweights: on the one hand the political movement of the former mayor of Dakar, on the other the African Patriots of Senegal for Labor , ethics and fraternity (Pastef), the formation of the imprisoned anti-system opponent Ousmane Sonko, dissolved by the government on July 31.
The quarrel had taken an acrimonious turn after Taxawu Senegal’s participation in the national dialogue organized by President Macky Sall at the end of May. “These texts of the dialogue, we are going to vote on them,” said MP Abba Mbaye, close to Khalifa Sall, at the time. Done, the electoral code was able to be modified, which allowed the former mayor of Dakar, as well as Karim Wade, to regain his eligibility.
In the end, it was the ousting of one of Ousmane Sonko’s lieutenants from his post as deputy mayor of Dakar who signed, on Wednesday, the final act of this rivalry within Yewwi Askan Wi. “A fallacious pretext”, reacted the movement of Khalifa Sall, which invokes respect for a court decision requiring the municipal team of the capital to impose parity.
The concern of supporters of Ousmane Sonko
As such, the post of deputy mayor of Dakar should go to a woman. Abbas Fall, the Pastef deputy who occupied it, was forced to give up his place. His party hoped that the new deputy would come from his ranks, but it was ultimately a member of Taxawu Senegal who was appointed. A new blow for the party of Ousmane Sonko, while the eligibility of the leader of Pastef is compromised by three legal proceedings.
The concern of supporters of the mayor of Ziguinchor was further reinforced on Thursday by the announcement, in the pages of the newspaper L’Observateur, of the removal of their champion from the electoral lists. According to the private media, the Ministry of Justice transmitted to the authorities in charge of the electoral register a list of people whose conviction led to the loss of their civic rights.
The Pastef assures that it has not yet received an official notification. “Ousmane Sonko remains the most eligible candidate,” responded El Malick Ndiaye, the party’s communications secretary. The leader of Pastef, invested in mid-July by his party, is on his thirteenth day of hunger strike. He is in “a state of great fatigue” and his “precarious” health is deteriorating according to his lawyer Me Khoureychi Ba.
Can the Pastef continue to weigh in the opposition?
Sentenced in his absence in June to two years in prison for “corruption of youth” during his trial for rape against Adji Sarr, a former employee of the massage parlor Sweet Beauty, Ousmane Sonko was indicted at the end of July on nine other charges including calls for insurrection and disturbances to public security.
After its dissolution, the arrest of several of its executives and its calls without much success to the streets after the arrest of Ousmane Sonko, can the Pastef continue to weigh in the opposition? Once close, Khalifa Sall and Ousmane Sonko hardly mentioned their respective names, communicating about each other through barely veiled allusions in their latest outings.
Many supporters of Ousmane Sonko criticize the other opposition leaders for not supporting their leader enough. A feeling shared within Pastef. “Apart from the press statements made by some, there are not enough! “Laments one of the party executives. Barthélémy Dias retorted by condemning the propensity of those close to Ousmane Sonko to consider as “traitors” political actors who refuse to “forget their ambitions” in order to “submit” to their will.
