May 2. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The leader of the opposition party Senegalese Patriots Africans for Labour, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF), Ousmane Sonko, rejected on Monday Senegalese President Macky Sall’s call for dialogue.
“They ask us for dialogue, but the person who started the dialogue says that there are no problems in Senegal, that there are no political prisoners, that the institutions work well (…) So why do we have to talk?” Sonko, according to the APS news agency.
“If you say you want to talk to me, first acknowledge that there is a problem. Where there is no problem, there is no need to talk,” the opposition leader asserted.
In addition, he has considered that this call for dialogue is “to isolate him” and to “break the opposition”: “He cannot isolate us because we have forged ties with the Senegalese people,” he argued.
In this sense, Sonko has indicated that this proposal is a means to “validate a third unconstitutional candidacy” and has added that it is not possible to hold a political dialogue “without raising the fundamental question”, referring to the fact that “Macky Sall should not be candidate (for the presidency) for the third time”.
The opposition has denounced on several occasions that the president plans to run for a third term. The Senegalese constitution limits the total number of terms to two and an attempt to extend his stay in power could lead to instability.
Sonko was arrested in 2021 after around twenty opposition parliamentarians filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court against the withdrawal of their parliamentary immunity. The arrest of the opponent, who came in third place in the 2019 presidential elections, unleashed a wave of protests that resulted in several deaths. Finally, he was released, although the proceedings against him are still ongoing.
