(Dakar) Senegalese media favorable to Ousmane Sonko broadcast on Sunday an undated video attributed to the imprisoned opponent in which he names his number two Bassirou Diomaye Faye as his replacement in the February 25 presidential election.
Mr. Sonko also calls for the release of Mr. Faye, also detained.
The video posted on Mr. Sonko’s Facebook page and on the Jotna channel does not specify the date of the recording. They had broadcast last week in a similar format a video filmed according to Mr. Sonko in anticipation of his possible inability to compete in the presidential election.
Mr. Sonko, announced as one of the favorites of the election, was actually imprisoned in July 2023 for calling for insurrection, criminal conspiracy linked to a terrorist enterprise and endangering state security.
Since 2021, his involvement in legal cases that he presents as frame-ups, and his standoff with power have given rise to deadly unrest.
Mr. Sonko has just been disqualified from the presidential election by the Constitutional Council.
The candidacy of Mr. Faye was already the plan B of Mr. Sonko and his dissolved party, Pastef, although Mr. Faye has also been imprisoned since April 2023. The Constitutional Council, on the other hand, has just validated his candidacy, apparently because, unlike Mr. Sonko, he was not tried and convicted.
The video broadcast on Sunday evening confirms Mr. Faye as a replacement candidate for Pastef, of which he is the general secretary.
“I place the project in his hands,” said Mr. Sonko. “Bassirou, it’s me,” he says.
He introduces Mr. Faye as his “little brother”. “Bassirou is more honest than me. Bassirou is an extremely brilliant man,” he adds. He describes him as a man of action who “has been part of the project from the beginning”.
“Bassirou must be released” in the name of the principle of equality between candidates, said Mr. Sonko. He leaves other candidates of the same sensitivity qualified by the Constitutional Council the choice of remaining “to increase our air time”. On the other hand, he calls on those who have failed to rally behind Mr. Faye.