Senegalese people went out on their balconies on Thursday to bang on pots or honked their horns in their cars at the call of the main Senegalese opponent, who is seeking to challenge power a month before the legislative elections.
This is the second time that Ousmane Sonko has advocated this form of mobilization. He himself had taken part in a first pot concert in the capital on June 22. Wednesday, the call seems to have been less followed by the Dakarois, noted AFP journalists.
The day before, Mr. Sonko gave up his demonstrations against the government, banned by the authorities, in a concern for appeasement after the clashes which had left three dead on June 17.
But he had called for a concert of pans against President Macky Sall whom he accuses of wanting to fulfill a 3rd term. This maintains the vagueness on the subject.
Until Wednesday, tension had been mounting since the Constitutional Council had invalidated the list of incumbents on the national list of the opposition coalition Yewwi Askan Wi for the legislative elections on July 31.
This invalidation eliminated from the race opposition figures, such as Ousmane Sonko, who denounced a strategy by the presidency to remove his opponents.
Mr. Sonko, third in the 2019 presidential election and declared candidate for that of 2024, had threatened to prevent the holding of the legislative elections if his list of incumbents could not participate.
On Wednesday, he changed his tune and asked his supporters to prepare for the election, saying his coalition would participate with its list of alternates.