Police in rudeness and barriers were arranged across the roads leading to Mr. Sonko’s home in a opulent neighborhood of the capital.
Le Monde with AFP
In a climate of growing pre -electoral tension, Senegalese police blocked the opposition leader on Friday, June 17, Ousmane Sonko, at his home in Dakar, after his call to challenge a ban on the same day.
At midday, the police prevented Mr. Sonko from going to Friday prayer, while the first troubles were reported on social networks, with young people who are tire of tires and attacking urban furniture on a important road axis of the capital. Police in rose-on clothes and barriers were arranged across the roads leading to Mr. Sonko’s home, in a opulent neighborhood of the capital.
“Even our freedom of worship is flouted today. The police told me that they were ordered not to let me go out,” said Mr. Sonko, dressed in the Traditional boubou for prayer, after having encountered a barrage of police officers to whom he said he did not want it.
Power gives in to “panic”, had assured Mr. Sonko earlier, third of the 2019 presidential election, a candidate declared to that of 2024 and popular personality among young people. The opposition called to demonstrate Friday afternoon against the invalidation of a national list of candidates for the legislative elections of July 31, and more broadly against power.
calls for dialogue
This invalidation rules out the Mr. Sonko competition and certain opposition figures. The prefect prohibited the demonstration by invoking “threats of public order disorders”. Mr. Sonko and the leaders of his coalition announced their intention to brave the decree and called for a massively manifest. “The demonstration is maintained, it will indeed take place,” assured Ousseynou Ly, spokesperson for Mr. Sonko’s party, Pastef.
Many voices have risen to call for dialogue in the face of the risk of violence similar to riots, which, in March 2021, had killed a dozen people in the country. Power and the opposition have given no sign of wanting to compromise and political analysts generally describe a political dead end.
The opposition denounces the invalidation of the national list of the Yewwi Askan Wi coalition, led by Mr. Sonko’s party, like a charter of the president, Macky Sall, to rule out his opponents under the cover of legal means.
The Ministry of the Interior justified this decision by invoking the ineligibility of one of its candidates, who inadvertently appears both among the holders and the alternates. The Constitutional Council confirmed. The opposition threatened to prevent elections if Yewwi Askan Wi is not participating. In fact, Yewwi can always compete, but not Mr. Sonko.
“anyway, the country will do these elections”
The Senegalese elect their 150 deputies according to a mode which is unit proportional to national lists for 53 parliamentarians, and majority ballot in the departments for 97 others. The diaspora elects 15 deputies.
It is the national list of holders of Yewwi which is rejected. But the coalition can participate with the list of alternates and with its candidates in the departments. President Sall closed the door to a draft of the invalidated list. “In any case, the country will make these elections, the Constitutional Council has decided,” he said.
The questioning of Mr. Sonko by justice in a case of alleged rape had contributed in March 2021 to several days of riots, looting and destruction. Two other opponents of the president, the former mayor of Dakar Khalifa Sall (without kinship with Macky Sall) and former Minister Karim Wade, son of the former president, saw their trajectory interrupted by legal troubles. Power defends itself from any instrumentalization of the state apparatus.