Block the road to Macky Sall. 10 months before the presidential election, more than 100 political and civil society organizations launched a coalition on Sunday (April 16th) in Dakar to block a possible third term of President Macky Sall. The "Movement of Living Forces of Senegal F24", in reference to the presidential election scheduled for February 2024, was launched in the presence of several opposition leaders, including Ousmane Sonko.

The coalition includes parties, civil society organisations and independent personalities. It aims "the respect by President Macky Sall (elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2019) of the Constitution and the word given and his renunciation to present his candidacy for an illegal and illegitimate third term," according to his statement published Sunday.

"When the time comes, I will make my position known"

President Sall, after several statements in which he said he would not run in 2024, remains silent today on his intentions in relation to this election, while his opponents believe that he finishes his two legal terms.

The Senegalese leader kept open the question of his candidacy by arguing that only political factors, not constitutional, would prevent him from running, in an interview published in mid-March by the French magazine L'Express.

"From a legal point of view, the debate has been settled for a long time" in his favour, he said in this interview. "Now, should I run for a third term or not? (...) I have not yet given my answer. When the time comes, I will make my position known."

More than 120 entities signed the F24 Movement charter on Sunday, according to its initiators.

The coalition is also calling for the release of "political detainees" arrested during protests related to the defamation lawsuit brought against Ousmane Sonko by Tourism Minister Mame Mbaye Niang, who is also responsible for the presidential party.

Ousmane Sonko prevented?

Hundreds of people have been arrested in recent weeks during these demonstrations, according to Sonko's party, which Minister Niang criticized for saying he had been singled out by a report by an oversight institution for his management of a youth employment fund.

Sonko is due to be tried on appeal on Monday, after being sentenced on March 30 to a two-month suspended prison sentence and 200 million CFA francs (300,000 euros) in damages. The opponent, however, retains his eligibility for the presidential election of 2024, according to his lawyers. The Public Prosecutor's Office and the civil party appealed against this judgment.

Ousmane Sonko and his supporters accuse the government of instrumentalizing justice to prevent him from running for president in 2024. The presidential party, for its part, accuses Mr. Sonko of wanting to paralyze the country and use the street to escape justice.

In March 2021, Sonko's indictment in another case of alleged rape and his arrest on the way to court helped spark the worst riots in years in Senegal, an island of stability in a troubled West African region. They had caused at least a dozen deaths. The trial has not yet taken place.

With AFP

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