2024-03-15 19:24:22
Speaking to the press the day following his release from prison, Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko predicted the large victory of his foe, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, in the first round of the presidential election on March 24, if the election takes place without fraud.
Published on: 03/15/2024 – 8:24 p.m. Modified on: 03/15/2024 – 10:17 p.m.
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For his first speech in months, Friday March 15, anti-system opponent Ousmane Sonko showed confidence in the outcome of the next presidential election, buoyed by the excitement raised by his release from prison 10 days before the ‘election.
“If the election goes well, I don’t think we will get less than 60%,” he told the press in Dakar. However, he called on “the Senegalese to remain vigilant, especially since there are rumors of corruption circulating”, adding that he does not have “sufficient evidence” in this regard.
Ousmane Sonko returned to the long monologues that characterize him, returning to the current electoral process and his disqualification from the presidential election by the Constitutional Council in January. He accused this body of having eliminated him “on command”.
He affirmed his intention to put himself at the service of victory, without putting forward his person in the campaign. “My person is not the most important thing. My goal is to help win the election,” he said. Since his imprisonment in July 2023, he has “never decided anything without talking to Bassirou Diomaye” Faye, he assured.
After his disqualification from the presidential election, his camp nominated Bassirou Diomaye Faye in his place in January.
Read alsoPresidential election in Senegal: “the Sonko movement” is reorganized around Bassirou Diomaye Faye
Ousmane Sonko reported having asked the deputies of his camp to vote once morest the amnesty law which was adopted last week, and which allowed his release from prison and that of Bassirou Diomaye Faye. He designated the presidential camp’s candidate, former Prime Minister Amadou Ba, as “the greatest danger facing Senegal today.”
“This election will not be a war,” he said, while referring to the accountability to be held by those currently in charge in the event of his side’s victory. “There will be no revenge, there will be justice. I am not saying that there will be total impunity,” he said.
The amnesty law was adopted at the instigation of President Macky Sall to, said the latter, calm minds following three years of tensions, rekindled by a last minute postponement of the presidential election. “It is because it is promulgated that they (Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye) came out,” Yoro Dia, presidential spokesperson, said on Friday.
Read alsoPresidential election in Senegal: an express campaign, in the middle of Ramadan, to get out of the crisis
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court spared the country another drama by rejecting the petitions of disqualified presidential candidates, including Karim Wade, who requested the suspension of the decrees setting the date of the election and the duration of countryside. The Court declared these requests “inadmissible”.
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