In Senegal, the judicial stranglehold is tightening around opposition MP Ousmane Sonko, who came third in the 2019 presidential election and who is now being prosecuted for rape by the employee of a beauty salon in Dakar, where he was going to get a massage. Is it just a court case or is it a political conspiracy set up by President Macky Sall, as the accused shouts loud and clear? Moussa Diaw is a teacher-researcher at Gaston Berger University. On line from Saint-Louis in Senegal, he answers questions from Christophe Boisbouvier.
RFI: What do you think of this rape complaint against Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko?
Following this rape complaint, Ousmane Sonko cries out for the plot hatched against him by the head of state Macky Sall. He says that all this is done to ruin his plan to run for the 2024 presidential election.
Does this mean that, for you, Ousmane Sonko is a victim of the same political-judicial manoeuvre as Karim Wade or Khalifa Sall?
And when you speak of people close to the head of state who would be protected, are you referring to his brother AliouneSall, who was implicated in an oil case two years ago?
Ousmane Sonko is the target of a complaint lodged by an employee of a beauty salon in Dakar, where he was going to get a massage. Can’t the authorities say that after all, if there is a complaint in court, it must be followed up?
Following the 2019 presidential election, the second runner-up, Idrissa Seck, has just come to power. And the third-placed candidate, Ousmane Sonko, is now in trouble with the law. Does this mean that the Senegalese opposition has been beheaded?
Last November, President Macky Sall dismissed from power personalities very close to him, such as Amadou Ba, Aly Ngouille-Ndiaye, Aminata Touré… Do you agree with the analyst Cheikh Oumar Diallo, who notes that « Macky Sall dismisses the ambitious within his own family and rallies to him the ambitious outside »?
And if Ousmane Sonko is blocked by this lawsuit, what other opposition figures can emerge between now and 2024? We’re obviously thinking of Karim Wade and Khalifa Sall, but what chance do they have of being able to run?
Macky Sall or the vacuum strategy?
For Macky Sall, in any case, it is precisely his strategy, it is to create a vacuum around him. And in my opinion, that’s a problem, because there are political actors. There is civil society in Senegal and there will be resistance. In my opinion, the best way is to try to respect the Constitution. After his second term, he should give way and someone else could continue.
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