CAP SKIRING, Senegal: Senegal’s charismatic opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and his coalition’s presidential candidate traveled to southern Senegal on Saturday pressing on with their election campaign with the vote just less than two weeks away.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Amadou Bah, who is running for president, condemned the Sonko’s “slanderous” attack on him the night before.
Sonko and his ally Bassirou Diomaye Faye were greeted by hundreds of supporters after arriving by plane at the Cap Skiring, a seaside resort in the Casamance region.
Sonko endorsed Faye as the candidate for a coalition government in the March 24 election after he himself was barred from running.
The two political allies were driven from the airport in a black four-wheel-drive vehicle with tinted windows as the crowd chanted “Diomaye, president!”.
Faye appeared first wearing a traditional white boubou, or flowing wide-sleeved robe, followed by Sonko in a pale green shirt and cap.
Both men raised their hands in salute to the mostly young crowd.
Sonko will ‘bring change’
“We are going to win in the first round, I’m sure of it,” a 26-year-old supporter Malang Sane said, repeating the prediction made by Sonko the previous night in Dakar.
“We have come to welcome our leader [Sonko] who has just got out of prison and is going to bring change,” said another supporter at the rally.
“Senegal is like a new car that hasn’t been used — and Ousmane Sonko is going to get it running,” he said further.
Faye took the front seat and Sonko sat behind him as their convoy headed to the Casamance regional capital of Ziguinchor, some 80 kilometres away. Sonko was once the mayor there and this area is his political stronghold.
They were released late Thursday night to the applause of hundreds of fans in Dakar.
Sonko was jailed at the end of July last year on a series of charges including incitement to rebellion, colluding with terrorist organizations and endangering national security.
Faye was jailed in April 2023 after posting messages criticizing the justice system accused of contempt of court, defamation and conduct likely to endanger public safety.
Mr. Sonko has been a staunch critic of government corruption and claimed there was a conspiracy to keep him out of the 2024 elections.
