“There will be no election in this country, or else it will be in indescribable chaos if by legal tricks President Macky Sall wanted to prevent my candidacy”, warned the Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko, the leader of Pastef , in an interview on the France 24 channel. These remarks come a few days after President Macky Sall announced that he would not run for a third term in the presidential election of 2024, after a year of tensions in the country.
Ousmane Sonko is seen as President Sall’s fiercest opponent since he came third in the 2019 election. But he was sentenced a month ago to two years in prison in a manners. This condemnation makes him in the current state ineligible. In early June, it caused the most serious unrest in years in Senegal, killing 16 people according to the authorities and around 30 according to the opposition.
Speaking for the first time, Ousmane Sonko said Macky Sall gave up a third candidacy, “not because he is a democrat” but because of “popular and international pressure”. According to him, there is no reason to “congratulate” him for that.
Despite the “relentlessness” of power to eliminate him from the presidential race according to him, the leader of Pastef said he was “ready to forgive”, and even to “forget”, if he can participate in the election. “We wish him (Macky Sall) to finish this mandate in style and to be able to leave in serenity”, he added, calling for “free”, “transparent” and “inclusive” elections.
He claimed that there was no “official” or “unofficial” contact between him and the head of state. He said he was ready “to make sacrifices” to “appease” the country, but recalled that he would not discuss “the knife to the throat”.
On his situation, Ousmane Sonko said he was blocked by the security forces at his home in Dakar, “sequestered” according to him, since May 28. He is still under threat of arrest.
