The mayor of Ziguinchor Ousmane Sonko, leader of pastef party and the great associate of the inter-coalition Yewwi Askan Wi-Wallu Senegal has expressed his desire to run for the presidential elections of 2024. It was during a conference that he expressed his desire while warning France and Macky Sall who seeks a third term.
“I, Ousmane Sonko, if it pleases GOD and if my party wants it, I am a candidate for the presidential election of 2024. No one is better placed than us to win,” said Ousmane Sonko on Thursday 19 August in Dakar, the Senegalese capital. It is indeed the first appearance of the opponent and leader of the pastef party since the proclamation of the results of the legislative elections of 31 July which made President Macky Sall lose his absolute majority in parliament.
Ousmane Sonko, 49, is a true defender of religious and traditional values who has most of the political class following him. The mayor of Ziguinchor, elected in January, has strong support among Senegal’s youth, with more than half of the population under the age of twenty. “I want to tell the activists to direct all their efforts to enrol young first-time voters so that they go massively to register on the electoral rolls, to establish cells in all parts of the national territory,” he said.
Ousmane’s desire to run for the elections
In a pan-Africanist, sovereignist and socialist discourse, he criticizes the elites and corruption while denouncing the growing involvement of France in Senegal’s national politics and economy. An announcement by Ousmane Sonko to run for the 2024 presidential elections for which Macky Sall, the current Senegalese president, is seeking to block him with the intention of running for a third term.
Third in the 2019 presidential elections, the participation of the leader of the opposition is not in doubt. Unless he is prejudiced by the alleged rape cases he is involved in, which he sees as machinations to prevent him from standing for election. “Every day, their laboratories are running at full speed, producing a lot of plots. Their objective is to find a reason for condemnation to prevent the candidacy of Ousmane Sonko,” he said.
Through his comments, he accuses President Macky Sall and the French media of scheming to prevent him from participating in the elections, while setting up machinations to indict him or cast doubt on his honour and credibility. Ousmane Sonko says: “They are creating files of terrorism, of imaginary rape rebellion manufactured with the support of France”.
The stakes of the 2024 elections for Ousmane Sonko
Still speaking to the press in Dakar, the mayor of Ziguinchor said: “The challenge of the presidential election of 2024 will be to choose between keeping Senegal under the current subservience and mismanagement or recovering our full sovereignty to build and develop our country. Moreover, Ousmane Sonko is not the only opponent to announce his candidacy in these elections. The former minister Malick Gackou, also an opponent of Macky Sall’s regime, is running in the 2024 presidential elections.
Thierry Hounye(stag)
