With Senegal’s presidential election slated for 10 months in February next year, opponents of President Macky Sall’s third term in office have decided to step up their game. More than a hundred political and civil society organizations launched a coalition on Sunday April 16 in Dakar with the aim of blocking this possible third term of outgoing President Macky Sall. Baptismal name: Mouvement des forces vives du Sénégal F24. The event took place in the presence of Ousmane Sonko, president of the Pastef party and currently the most prominent opposition politician.
The coalition is notably made up of parties, civil society organizations and independent personalities. It aims “the respect by President Macky Sall (elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2019) of the Constitution and the word given and his renunciation of presenting his candidacy for an illegal and illegitimate third term”, according to his statement published Sunday and quoted by AFP. It is a reaction to the fact that President Sall, after several declarations in which he affirmed that he would not run in 2024, remains silent today on his intentions with regard to this election, while his opponents believe that he finishes his two legal mandates. The current Senegalese head of state kept the question of his candidacy open, arguing that only political, not constitutional, factors would prevent him from running, in an interview published in mid-March by the French magazine L ‘Express. “Legally, the debate has long been settled” in his favor, he said in the interview. “Now should I run for a third term or not?” […] I haven’t given my answer yet. When the time comes, I will make my position known. »
Facing him, more than 120 entities signed the F24 Movement charter on Sunday, if its initiators are to be believed. The coalition is also calling for the release of “political detainees” arrested during protests linked to the defamation lawsuit brought against Ousmane Sonko by Tourism Minister Mame Mbaye Niang, also in charge of the presidential party. Hundreds of people have been arrested in recent weeks during these demonstrations, according to the party of Ousmane Sonko, whom Minister Niang criticized for saying he had been singled out by a report from a control institution for his management of a youth employment fund.
Mr. Sonko is to be tried on appeal this Monday, April 17, after being sentenced on March 30 to two months in prison suspended and 200 million CFA francs (300,000 euros) in damages. The opponent, however, retains his eligibility for the 2024 presidential election, according to his lawyers. The prosecution and the civil party appealed against this judgment. Mr. Sonko and his supporters accuse the government of using justice to prevent him from running for president in 2024. The presidential party, for its part, accuses Mr. Sonko of wanting to paralyze the country and of using the streets to escape justice. In March 2021, the questioning of Mr. Sonko in another case, of alleged rape, and his arrest on the way to court had contributed to triggering the most serious riots in years in Senegal, an island of stability in a western region. – Troubled African. They had caused at least a dozen deaths. The trial has not yet taken place.