The imprisoned Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko was inaugurated on Sunday December 31 as candidate for the 2024 presidential election in a private place, behind closed doors, after the ban on the public meeting planned for Saturday, according to an official and images from Senegal television. his camp.
President Macky Sall also declared on Sunday that he would “sort of” that the presidential election of February 25, 2024 “takes place, like the previous ones, peacefully and in the best organizational conditions”, in his end-of-year message. Elected in 2012 for seven years and re-elected in 2019 for five years, he announced in July that he would not run again in 2024.
Mr. Sonko’s inauguration in this election was symbolically held on Sunday in the presence of around fifty people, this leader of his camp told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The inauguration meeting initially planned for Saturday in Dakar was banned on Friday for “threats of disturbances to public order”.
“The application file [de M. Sonko] was filed on December 12 » to the Constitutional Council, indicated lawyer Ciré Clédor Ly, his representative at the jurisdictional level, in a press release sent Friday evening to AFP. The deadline ran until December 26 for collecting sponsorships and submitting applications.
In prison since the end of July
Mr. Sonko is the central figure in a standoff lasting more than two years with the State which gave rise to several episodes of deadly unrest. After the administration’s refusal to deliver the necessary documents to Mr. Sonko, his lawyers announced their intention to submit his candidacy to the Constitutional Council, saying “trust justice” faced with a State seeking, according to them, to“discard” of the ballot.
Found guilty on 1er June of debauchery of a minor and sentenced to two years in prison, Mr. Sonko did not appear at the trial and was convicted in absentia. The 49-year-old opponent has been imprisoned since the end of July on other charges, including calling for insurrection. He denounces these cases and the others in which he was implicated as plots aimed at removing him from the presidential election.
In mid-December, a judge relaunched his candidacy by ordering his re-registration on the electoral lists, confirming a decision rendered in October by the Ziguinchor court (south) which had been overturned by the Supreme Court. The state filed an appeal against the mid-December decision.
More than 90 applications have been submitted to the Constitutional Council, which must announce the list of successful candidates on January 20.