DAKAR, Senegal — The party of jailed opposition chief Ousmane Sonko mentioned Sunday it was once sponsoring any other candidate for the February presidential election, simply days after Senegal’s Supreme Court successfully blocked Sonko’s personal bid.
Election government have refused to supply Sonko with the sponsorship papers that wish to be submitted via early December. On Sunday, the YouTube channel of Sonko’s Pastef party mentioned it now would sponsor the party’s No. 2 baby-kisser, Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
In making the announcement, the party mentioned Faye “is the candidate that Pastef will sponsor,” however specified that Sonko’s candidacy has been maintained.
“Sponsoring the candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye in no way implies an abdication of the candidacy of President Ousmane Sonko,” the party mentioned in a verbal exchange launched Sunday.
“Everyone knows him well enough to know that to his last breath, he will fight without compromise. To sponsor the candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye is to defeat the regime’s strategy of rotting and launch one of our project’s many cards into the race.”
Faye, a tax and assets inspector, is the opposition party’s Secretary General. In April he was once arrested on fees of “spreading false news, insulting a Justice of the Peace and defaming a constituted frame” after making comments on social media.
Like Sonko, he is also now facing a slew of other criminal charges that the party believes are politically motivated. Those include calling for insurrection, undermining state security and plotting against the authority of the state among others.
Incumbent President Macky Sall ended years of speculation in July when he announced that he would not seek a third term in office. The move came after Sonko’s supporters launched months of protests that at times turned deadly. The ruling party has since coalesced around Prime Minister Amadou Ba as its candidate of choice.
Sonko placed third in the last presidential election in 2019, drawing wide support from younger voters. In the years since, Sonko has accused Sall and his government of pursuing criminal charges in an effort to sideline the opposition figure’s future political aspirations.
In June, Sonko was acquitted on charges of raping a woman who worked at a massage parlor and making death threats against her. But he was convicted of corrupting youth and sentenced to two years in prison, which ignited deadly protests across the country.
___ Associated Press author Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed.
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