2024-03-16 19:10:00
Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye, candidate for the March 24 presidential election, are campaigning in Casamance. They arrived by plane on Saturday March 16, two days following their release from prison. This first trip by the two men outside of Dakar took place a week before the end of the electoral campaign.
When they got off the plane at Cap Skiring, Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye immediately took their place in a black 4X4 vehicle with tinted windows. They were cheered by several hundred people, who came to wait for them at the airport of this seaside resort, one of the most important tourist destinations in the country.
Candidate Faye, in a white boubou, was the first to appear. Ousmane Sonko wears a pale green shirt and a cap. Both had their arms raised in victory, in front of a mostly young crowd who chanted “Diomaye president”.
A convoy of several dozen vehicles then left from Cap-Skiring, some 80 km from Ziguinchor, the main city of Casamance of which Ousmane Sonko is the mayor, in a region which is his stronghold.
“We will win in the first round”
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The presidential campaign began on March 9. It was shortened by a third due to the political crisis following the postponement on February 3 of the presidential election, initially scheduled for February 25, by President Sall. The Constitutional Council then forced him to set a new date for a vote before the end of his mandate on April 2. The extremis postponement of the presidential election caused numerous clashes in the country.
Hand in hand campaign
The two opponents were released Thursday evening following months of detention, under an amnesty law adopted last week at the instigation of President Macky Sall. Released from prison, Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye, president and secretary general of the dissolved Pastef party, can now participate in the campaign. Ousmane Sonko was disqualified from the presidential election in January, with Pastef then designating Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
See also Senegal: first press conference for Ousmane Sonko
During a joint press conference on Friday, the two men attacked the ruling candidate, former Prime Minister Amadou Ba. “If he is elected, he will be the president of foreign countries”said Ousmane Sonko, accusing Amadou Ba of having covered up embezzlement.
Ousmane Sonko “repeat by devoting an entire press conference to tasteless defamation and slander“, retorted, in a press release, the camp of Mr. Ba, campaigning on Saturday, in the north and east of the country.
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