The rallies began on the evening of Tuesday March 14 in the Acapès district of Dakar, the capital. Tens of thousands of Ousmane Sonko supporters gathered in an atmosphere of jubilation to support the opponent who is being prosecuted. Ousmane Sonko is 48 years old, he leads the opposition coalition Yewwi Askan Wi, Liberate the people, and he appears today as the main opponent of Senegalese President Macky Sall. Ousmane Sonko was implicated in a case of alleged rape, and he is also summoned Thursday, March 16 in another case, sued by defamation and insults by the Minister of Tourism. But for his supporters, it’s a political plot to get him out of the way.
Tuesday evening, several opposition leaders therefore took the stage to support him. And Ousmane Sonko went up to the podium last to call on his supporters to meet in court on Thursday, to launch one of his favorite slogans, Gatsa Gatsa, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. And then call on the police and gendarmerie to stand “on the side of the people”, if they have “something between their legs”. Other demonstrations of support for Ousmane Sonko are announced Wednesday evening in other cities of the country and therefore Thursday before the court in Dakar. As for Ousmane Sonko, he has been blocked at his home by the police since this morning.
Anger against a possible third term of President Sall
The opposition denounces more generally an authoritarian drift of President Macky Sall: in recent months, many demonstrations have been banned in this country of 17 million inhabitants. Opponents were arrested, journalists also like the boss of the Dakar Matin news site Pape Alé Niang, imprisoned in November or like Pape Ndiaye, of Walfadjiri television: he had questioned the impartiality of justice in the case. by Ousmane Sonko. The anger of the opposition also crystallizes on the intention attributed to Macky Sall to run for a third consecutive term. The current president, in power for 11 years, will see his second term end next year. And normally the Senegalese Constitution strictly limits the possibility of a third term. The president has not revealed his intentions but the opposition is convinced that Macky Sall will seek to override the Constitution. And in the meeting on Tuesday we heard in particular the slogan “Macky Sall dictator”.
A tradition of reconciliation and respect for the rule of law
This tension is worrying in a country preserved by instability until now in a West Africa where the shocks are multiplying, in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea. Senegal has so far escaped this, in particular because it has a tradition of dialogue and conflict resolution. The great religious brotherhoods, the Mourides, the Tidjanes, often play a major role in calming people’s minds. But if Senegal has escaped instability it is also because its presidents were able to retire in time after electoral failures: Abdou Diouf, Abdoulaye Wade. Macky Sall’s behavior in view of next year’s elections will therefore have a major impact on the country’s future.