The candidacy of Bassirou Diomaye Faye constitutes only one candidacy with that of Sonko. This is what the Coalition of Allied Leaders of President Ousmane Sonko (Lacos) suggested yesterday. The latter, who “disqualified” the Constitutional Council after “the invalidation of the candidacy of Ousmane Sonko”, accuse a “part of the opposition” of being “accomplice” to the regime by “helping it to legitimize” everything that it is doing now.

The Leaders allied to President Ousmane Sonko (Lacos) spoke yesterday on the validation by the Constitutional Council of the candidacy of Bassirou Diomaye Faye chosen by Ousmane Sonko whose candidacy is invalidated. The members of this structure believe that “Sonko and Diomaye Faye are only one candidate”. “Ousmane Sonko was not to be a candidate, but by allowing Bassirou Diomaye Faye to be a candidate, it is Ousmane Sonko who is a candidate. So, we have our candidate, we have our program, we have our man in Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye. It is Ousmane Sonko who will be on the field, it is Diomaye Faye who will be on the field. We will do the work for them and we will come back here to see. But we will not rest on our laurels,” declared Birame Soulèye Diop yesterday during the Lacos Coalition press conference.

“Transparency of the electoral process” demanded

Vice-president of the former Pastef party, Birame Soulèye Diop, who renounced his candidacy for the Presidency, to defend that of Sonko, delivered a message of solidarity to the “candidates”, whom he considers to have been “excluded of the presidential election including Ousmane Sonko” and pleaded for “the transparency of the electoral process”. “These bodies must ensure the transparency of the process, which was delegated by the People to these bodies,” said Birame Soulèye Diop, citing “the Daf, the Dge, the Cena and the Constitutional Council.” He accused them of “having failed in their obligations”.

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The No. 2 of the former Pastef party calls for a “sacred union of the entire opposition and those who are illegally excluded from organizing” to “demand total, global and transparent access to the electoral lists”. “We are demanding the appointment of an independent body responsible for organizing the elections”. “We need to vote and have the vote monitored,” added the president of the parliamentary group of Yewwi askan wi (Yaw). “We will not accept that our will is confiscated,” he warned.

Attacks against part of the opposition and the 7 “Wise Men”

The non-validation of Ousmane Sonko’s candidacy continues to make waves among his supporters. The Lacos accuse part of the opposition and the Constitutional Council “as accomplices in the desire to exclude Ousmane Sonko” from the next presidential election on February 25. “The Constitutional Council has lost all respect and credibility to arbitrate this election. Everything that President Macky Sall considers legitimate, he does through the Constitutional Council, in complicity with part of the opposition. Everything that President Macky Sall intends to legalize, he does through dialogue. In the end, there is one thing to remember, a clear desire to violate the suffrage of the Senegalese, a desire to guide the destiny of a People,” argued Maïmouna Bousso yesterday during the Lacos Coalition press conference in which Mamadou Lamine Dianté, Seydina Oumar Touré known as Captain Touré, Birame Soulèye Diop, president of the Yewwi parliamentary group took part.

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“During the legislative elections, the opposition list was excluded. These accomplices, part of the opposition and the Constitutional Council,” accused Ms. Bousso, not without adding that “the treatment meted out to Ousmane Sonko constitutes the same as that suffered by Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade, excluded from the 2019 presidential election” after being convicted and imprisoned. Enough for Maïmouna Bousso to call for “secure voting” by convening the Keur Massar pact on its first anniversary.

“We must be ready to secure the vote”

“Are we ready? January 22, 2023, one year to the day since we met with President Ousmane Sonko in Keur Massar to make the pact. This pact said that we are ready to face the regime, we are ready to liberate Senegal. We are not saying that we are ready to burn Senegal. Many people say we are ready for the election. Are we ready? Whoever goes to an election should do so with a transparent process.  If we take our cards and go to the polls, we must be ready to secure the vote,” she argues.

“In front of Ousmane Sonko, they failed on every level. The Dge failed because it refused to give us back our sponsorship forms. They failed in relation to contumacy, to radiation. Now they are falling back on our ability to choose, the ball is in our court. Are we ready? The pact contains a commitment and Ousmane Sonko said he would go through to the end. Today he is in prison.  It is up to us to fulfil the other part of the pact,” underlined Maïmouna Bousso.

Mamadou Lamine Dianté, for his part, speaks of a pre-electoral crisis by locating responsibilities. “We consider the situation to be very delicate. And as we were already saying when we were on campus that the situation is serious. Because we can undoubtedly, and without risk of being mistaken, indicate that we are in a pre-electoral crisis. And this pre-electoral crisis is not the fault of political actors, but it is the fault of our fellow citizens, who were chosen to be part of those called the seven “Wise Men”, who transformed our Constitutional Council into a thing so that many candidates, who sweated water and blood to find sponsorships, pay their deposit at the level of the Deposits and Consignations Fund (Cdc) today say they are robbed by the Constitutional Council,” he supports

Lawyer Masokhna Kane, one of Ousmane Sonko’s lawyers, present at yesterday’s press conference, insisted on the fact that “Ousmane Sonko is on the list. He is a voter and he is eligible.”

By Amadou  MBODJI / ambodji@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH