This face of the opposition, sovereignist and committed against corruption, has been targeted by several legal cases over recent years.
He is accumulating travel, before a particularly anticipated presidential election, Sunday March 24 in Senegal. In Casamance, his region of origin, the opponent Ousmane Sonko was welcomed by thousands of residents committed to his cause. “Our hope is Ousmane Sonko. He will bring us work and development,” advances Boubacar Diedhou, a young voter, to AFP. “He is the man who can change everything, who carries within him the hope of a new Senegal”, supports a 27-year-old pastry chef.
However, Ousmane Sonko is not in the running for the supreme office. His candidacy was rejected at the start of the year by the Constitutional Council, following three years of legal cases described as a political “conspiracy” by the opponent. On March 14, the 49-year-old Senegalese was narrowly released from prison alongside Bassirou Diomaye Faye, his camp’s official candidate in the presidential election.
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Since then, Ousmane Sonko has led an accelerated campaign for the victory of his second. “The presencee of Ousmane Sonko is important to the masses, underlines Alassane Beye, teacher-researcher at Gaston-Berger University in Saint-Louis. LPeople don’t know Bassirou Diomaye Faye, but they know Ousmane Sonko.” Who is this popular figure in the Senegalese opposition, a key player in the presidential election despite his ineligibility? Franceinfo draws up its portrait.
A tax inspector at war with the system and its corruption
Casamance, in the south of Senegal, is the stronghold where Ousmane Sonko grew up after his birth in Thiès. Far from places of power, this region was able to nourish the convictions of the Senegalese in favor of greater decentralization, notes The world. Nevertheless, “it is rather his move to taxes which affected his political positions”, points out Alassane Beye. After a master’s degree in law and at the National School of Administration (ENA) of Senegal, Ousmane Sonko begins a career as a principal inspector of taxes and domains. A career following in the footsteps of his parents, both civil servants.
“His time in taxes allows him to know the ecosystem of the Senegalese administration and its corrupt practices.”
Alassane Beye, specialist in electoral sociology in Senegalat franceinfo
The inspector created the first union in his profession in 2005, then participated in the opposition meetings in 2008, note The world. A committed civil servant, Ousmane Sonko enters the political scene by developing a speech to fight against corruption in the system. With legitimacy: his experience “at the heart of the device”. His criticisms led to his being removed from the civil service by presidential decree in 2016, for “failure to exercise discretion”. Ousmane Sonko accuses figures in the country – including the president’s brother – of having obtained illegal tax advantages. In 2017 he signed the book Oil and gas in Senegal: chronicle of dispossession.
At the same time, in 2014, the Senegalese founded the Senegalese Patriots for Work, Ethics and Fraternity party (Pastef). The movement brings together executives from the administration but also from liberal professions or the private sectors. Most “have never been in politics”, insists the party in its presentation. This formation is part of a sovereignist and pan-Africanist line, with priority given to Senegalese and African interests. Some see populism in the inspector’s unfiltered, sometimes provocative remarks. “Ousmane Sonko noted a global trend, a breakthrough of sovereignist parties, deciphers Alassane Beye. He capitalized on his administrative legitimacy to construct a sovereignist discourse on the monopolization of resources by the intelligentsia, by multinationals.” A denunciation of the Senegalese system and its foreign partners, notably France.
A presidential candidate who was able to capture a part of the youth
Throughout his speeches, the public official, who became a whistleblower, captured a first electoral base. Elected deputy in 2017, Ousmane Sonko advocates the economic sovereignty of Senegal. He calls for an exit from the CFA franc, a currency with post-colonial overtones in his eyes, notes France 24. The opponent also continues his fight against fraud, debt and the privileges of the political elite. With a vision: “When we are patriotic, we do not indulge in corruption. We ensure good governance and good management of public resources,” observes Babacar Ndiaye, political analyst and director of research at the Wathi think tank in Dakar.
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A shift takes place during the February 2019 presidential election in Senegal. President Macky Sall was re-elected with 58.26% of the votes, but candidate Sonko finished third, capturing 15.67% of the votes. A feat for Pastef, which received less than 1% of the vote during the 2017 legislative elections, according to The world. The low number of presidential candidates (only five) may have worked in Ousmane Sonko’s favor, as did the sidelining of two opposition figures, Karim Wade and Khalifa Sall. Two rivals of Macky Sall sentenced in financial affairs, recalls the evening daily.
“Ousmane Sonko managed to campaign with minimal resources. He had a very high score for a candidate without a political apparatus,” adds Babacar Ndiaye. This notable success has a main explanation, in the analyst’s opinion: the speech made by the candidate, in particular among the majority youth in Senegal, a country where 75% of inhabitants are under 35 years old.
“Ousmane Sonko had a speech addressed to young people, that of ethics, of a Senegal which must change. He has a speech which carries, which interests young people a lot.”
Babacar Ndiaye, political analyst in Senegalat franceinfo
Beyond the younger generation, the opponent appeals to an intellectual, rather urban electoral base, which goes beyond his stronghold in southern Senegal. The rise is confirmed during the legislative elections of 2022: the coalition led by Ousmane Sonko obtains 56 seats out of 165 in the National Assembly, reports Release.
A major opponent victim of a “plot”?
In full flight, Ousmane Sonko finds himself plunged into a major legal sequence, which shakes his camp and the entire country. The MP was first accused of rape and death threats by an employee of a beauty salon in Dakar, where the opponent had his habits. He completely refutes these accusations, castigating a “attempted political liquidation” led by Macky Sall. The announcement of this complaint, in 2021, provoked initial anger from his supporters in the street. Clashes with the police continued the following month, when the accused was due to be heard. The opponent was arrested, notably for “disturbing public order”.
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His arrest, then his placement under judicial supervision, fueled new clashes between demonstrators and the police, like other decisions targeting him. A new accusation, and the trial that followed, this time for “defamation, insults and forgery”, stirred up a little more popular anger. In the spring of 2023, Ousmane Sonko was sentenced on appeal to six months in prison for these accusations brought by a minister, then to two years in prison for “corruption of youth”, in the first case targeting him. The courts did not convict him of rape or death threats.
Once again, Senegal is experiencing a conflagration. Nine people are killed on June 1, the day this heavy sentence was announced. The opposition figure is then arrested and prosecuted, among other things, for “calling for insurrection” and “conspiracy against state authority”. A reaction to his speeches and participation in demonstrations since 2021. “For him, it was necessary to challenge the institutions, to challenge the judicial institution by calling on people to resist and to demonstrate, comments Alassane Beye. We had to win this fight on the political field by occupying the streets.” A call widely heard, beyond its support base.
“Some Senegalese saw his arrest (and what followed) as a desire to prevent the expression of political diversity.”
Alassane Beye, teacher-researcherat franceinfo
The strong anger expressed in Senegal is also the result of an economic and social crisis, against a backdrop of the Covid-19 epidemic. Ousmane Sonko embodies the hope of a better future for part of the youth, but his political prospects are crumbling. His party was dissolved and his candidacy for the presidential election invalidated. Convicted and incarcerated, the face of the opposition is excluded from the race.
With his support, Bassirou Diomaye Faye was nominated as candidate in his place, with a slogan: “Ousmane mooy Diomaye” (“Ousmane, it’s Diomaye”). The two men are similar: they went through the ENA and the tax inspectorate, then union action and the management of Pastef. Bassirou Diomaye Faye, detained but not definitively sentenced, sees his candidacy validated. Their release on March 14, after weeks of crisis around the postponement of the election and an amnesty law, “changes everything”, in the opinion of Babacar Ndiaye. The analyst evokes scenes of jubilation at their release from prison, “which say a lot about Ousmane Sonko’s ability to mobilize young people. Will his presence alongside Bassirou Diomaye Faye, during a rushed campaign, be enough to win the candidate and his camp?