Senegal’s major opposition politician Ousmane Sonko on Thursday formally launched his candidacy for the nation’s 2024 presidential election, accusing the incumbent president and France of conspiring to forestall him from operating.
Sonko, chief of the PASTEF get together, got here third within the 2019 presidential election and there was little doubt he would run once more.
The 49-year-old former tax inspector was elected mayor of the southern metropolis of Ziguinchor in January. He has loved a fast political rise partially because of his recognition with younger individuals — half of Senegal’s inhabitants is beneath 20 years previous.
However critics characterise Sonko as a populist firebrand. He repeatedly tears into social elites and corruption, slamming the financial and political grip of multinational companies and former colonial energy France.
“I, Ousmane Sonko, if it pleases God and if my get together needs it, am a candidate within the 2024 presidential election. Nobody is healthier positioned than us to win,” he mentioned throughout a press convention in Dakar.
He mentioned President Macky Sall and France concern his advance and “every single day, their groups are operating at full pace, concocting conspiracies… to forestall the candidacy of Ousmane Sonko”.
Final yr, Sonko was accused of raping an worker at a magnificence salon the place he was getting a therapeutic massage.
His arrest led to a number of days of lethal riots, looting and destruction in March 2021.
Sonko claims he was arrange by the federal government to knock his 2024 presidential bid astray.
In his speech, he accused Sall of fabricating “instances of terrorism, insurrection, imaginary rape, manufactured with the help of France”.
He additionally attacked French media, which he mentioned acted as an “unofficial megaphone of the Elysee” and offered him as a “harmful politician”.
