In Senegal, opponent Ousmane Sonko promised Thursday, July 6, a 2024 presidential election in “indescribable chaos” if his candidacy is prevented, during his first speech since President Macky Sall announced Monday not to run. a third term. “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,” Sonko said in an interview on the France 24 channel. .
President Sall’s fiercest opponent was sentenced a month to two years ago in prison for “corruption of youth” – he has never ceased to proclaim his innocence and to cry conspiracy. This conviction makes him in the current state ineligible. At the beginning of June, it caused the most serious unrest in years in Senegal, killing sixteen people according to the authorities and around thirty according to the opposition.
Mr. Sonko felt that Mr. 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, he said, the leader of the African Patriots of Senegal party for work, ethics and fraternity (Pastef) said to himself ” 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, him and his family”, he added, calling for “free”, “transparent” and “inclusive” elections. He further claimed that there is no “official” or “unofficial” contact between him and the Head of State. He also said he was ready “to make sacrifices” to “appease” the country, but recalled that he would not discuss “the knife at the throat”.
Mr. Sonko has been blocked by security forces at his home in Dakar, “sequestered” according to him, since May 28.