• Sonko finishes the work of the Presidential

Ousmane Sonko, national head of the Pastef Coalition list, who emerged as the big winner of this weekend’s legislative elections, has managed to create a vacuum around him. He has gotten rid of his opponents. An approach he began since the presidential election and which he is finishing with his legislative elections. Not without having, first, ended his alliance with his former allies of Yewwi askan wi, of which he was the driving force, at the height of his fierce fight against former President Macky Sall.

Ousmane Sonko did not just win the early legislative elections on Sunday, November 17. He did more. With the victory of the ruling Pastef Coalition this Sunday, we can be led to deduce that the leader of the “Patriots” has gotten rid of his opponents, who animate the political arena. An approach started during the presidential election and which he has finished off with the legislative elections. These opponents are called Macky Sall, Idrissa Seck, Amadou Ba, Khalifa Sall… All these remarkable actors of the political scene have been fully or partially involved in the participation of their protégés. The electoral contests of this weekend, with the results that have finished being recorded, illustrate how a single politician without any ideology in his sling, Ousmane Sonko, not to name him, has managed to extinguish the ambitions of his predecessors on the political field.

With his triumph, the spectacular performance of his electoral and political camp, Ousmane Sonko has brought political families to their knees. The reunification of the family did not produce the expected effects. Which means that, consequently, the attempt to reunite the « children » of the Pope of Sopi will result in a count of the number of deputies that each political party – the Alliance for the Republic (APR), the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), Rewmi, etc. – will carry out to get a real idea of ​​its representativeness within the new National Representation, called upon to embody or animate the 15th legislature. The unity of electoral action put in place by these political parties seemed to pose or stand up – depending – as a republican front in front of the candidates of power. But, it could not resist the victorious machine of the Pastef Coalition, oiled by its formidable leader.

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Yet, seeking to innovate was not a suicidal act for those who lead these predominantly liberal parties. They wanted to improve what already existed in order to ultimately overcome the main opponent. Especially since the latter had adopted – in the legislative elections of July 31, 2022 against the then election-winning machine, Benno bokk yaakaar (Bby) – a similar approach, a first in the country’s political history: the inter-coalition. 

Looking at the results of this Sunday of the Pastef Coalition, we can also see or notice that the leader of the « Patriots » did not limit himself to dominating his challengers. Others among his opponents also paid the price of his successful political strategy. The head of the list of the Coalition « Sam sa kaddu », Barthélemy Dias, will not object otherwise. He who wanted to show himself intractable in front of his former ally of the Coalition Yewwi askan wi (Yaw) and new adversary as the political game evolved stopped at the feet of his new « antagonist ».

On their side, Anta Babacar Ngom, Cheikh Tidiane Youm, Bougane Guèye and Thierno Bocoum, companions and allies in misfortune of the mayor of the city of Dakar, cannot contest the new political service record of the leader of the Pastef party. The tone of their speeches during the electoral campaign, very radical, against the head of the national list of the Pastef Coalition did not benefit them.

The rental contract withdrawn

Ousmane Sonko, the driving force behind the defunct Yewwi Askan Wi Coalition, withdrew his confidence in his electoral allies during the epic battle he was waging with the former political regime of Macky Sall. The crisis arose from the participation of the political leader of the “Taxawu Senegaal” platform, the former mayor of the city of Dakar, Khalifa Ababacar Sall, pushed Ousmane Sonko to “deactivate” their political and… legislative alliance. Since, instead of Soweto, the Yewwi Askan Wi parliamentary group cracked, with the exit from the ranks of the allies of the parliamentarians who supported the former mayor of the capital. The latter had thus finished « imitating » their colleagues from Wallu, who had taken care to take their independence and autonomy of action within the National Assembly by setting up their own parliamentary group called Democracy, Freedom and Change. And this, from the official installation of the MPs of the 14th legislature, on a certain September 12, 2022.

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The latter, through their political training, thought it was wise to embark hand in hand, as liberal brothers and « sons » of the father of African liberalism, Lawyer Abdoulaye Wade, to arrive without a wave, therefore safely, on the quay of Soweto Square. The very agitated big blue of the legislative elections left them with few buoys to try to save themselves from an electoral drowning, which lay in wait for them as soon as they boarded the boat « Takku Wallu Senegaal ». While waiting to find a better captain, they must now get used to learning the lesson given to them by the captain of the new luxury boat, Ousmane Sonko.

By Mamadou T. DIATTA / mdiatta@lequotidien.sn 

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH