2023-10-16 08:41:00
The event, as judicial as it was political, came from a magistrate of a district court in Ziguinchor, in the south of Senegal. He ordered that Ousmane Sonko, a politician appearing as one of the favorites of the future presidential election, in the event that he is authorized to participate, be reinstated on the electoral lists from which he was removed. Enough to allow him a priori, even though he has been in prison since the end of July, and this, after months of showdown with the government and the justice system, to compete in the presidential election of February 2024. “The candidacy of ‘Ousmane Sonko is a social demand, it is a demand of the Senegalese people. […] Legally, Ousmane Sonko must be a candidate,” exulted one of his counsel, Me Ciré Clédor Ly, in the middle of the night, after a marathon hearing punctuated by twists and turns, such as a power cut which forced the judge to work at the court. flashlight during the deliberations. Me Clédor Ly also considered that the Ziguinchor judge had “shown enormous courage”. “Ousmane Sonko does not know the judge, the judge does not know him,” he said in response to the State’s request for recusal. The Union of Magistrates of Senegal condemned the attacks made by the state agent against the judge, considering that “the only valid judicial debate is that which takes place in the courtroom”.
A half-open door to the presidential election…
That said, this rare success for Mr. Sonko after a series of disappointments is far from guaranteeing his candidacy. State lawyers have announced an appeal to the Supreme Court. “For the moment, Ousmane Sonko cannot be reinstated in the electoral lists,” the state representative said in a statement at the hearing. The State tried, through its lawyers, to have Judge Sabassy Faye recused because the latter is the brother of one of Mr. Sonko’s deputies in his role as mayor of Ziguinchor.
Third in the presidential election in 2019, Mr. Sonko, 49, has been engaged in a fierce tussle in power since 2021 and his indictment in a morals affair. He and his lawyers have continued to denounce a plot to eliminate him politically. His sovereignist and pan-Africanist speech, his diatribes against “the state mafia”, multinationals and the economic and political influence exercised, according to him, by the former French colonial power have earned him strong support among those under 20, which represent half of the population. His detractors see him as an incendiary agitator.
…after a sequence of violent confrontation
The confrontation gave rise to several episodes of protest which left dozens of dead while Senegal, without being a stranger to political violence, is renowned for being an island of stability in a troubled region. After a conviction for defamation against a minister, Mr. Sonko was found guilty on June 1 of debauchery of a minor and sentenced to two years in prison. Having refused to appear at the trial, he was convicted in absentia. He was imprisoned at the end of July on other charges, including calling for insurrection, criminal association in connection with a terrorist enterprise and endangering state security. The authorities announced the dissolution of his party the same day.
Although the language varied, the government essentially used the conviction of Mr. Sonko in absentia to justify his removal from the lists. An official at the Interior Ministry confirmed to AFP in August that he had been removed, which prevents him from running for president. His lawyers had taken the case to court in Ziguinchor because that is where Mr. Sonko was registered.
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