Protesters rally in support of Senegalese opposition leader ahead of trial

Supporters of Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko are staging three days of protests ahead of a defamation trial that could stop the 48-year-old from contesting next year’s presidential election.

Opposition supporters sing and dance during a protest two days before the trial of leader Ousmane Sonko in Dakar on March 14, 2023. AFP - JOHN WESSELS

Thousands of people rallied peacefully in a working class district of the capital Dakar on Tuesday amid speculation that President Macky Sall plans to seek a third presidential term, bypassing the constitution.

Clad in the green, yellow and red colours of the Senegalese flag, Sonko’s supporters denounced the trial, which begins Thursday, as “a joke”. Others waved banners that read "No to a third term" for Sall.

“No one may serve more than two consecutive terms,” one protester told RFI Dakar correspondent Charlotte Idrac. “Seven years plus five years, that's two terms. It's over for him.”

Marches banned

While Tuesday’s protest, which had been called by the Yewwi Askan Wi (Liberate the People) coalition, was approved by authorities, other marches in recent months have been banned.

Government spokesman Abdou Karim Fofana said gatherings would be authorised as long as there was no risk to public order. He described Senegal as a “country of freedoms".

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Sonko is being sued by Tourism Minister Mame Mbaye Niang for "defamation, insult and forgery" in relation to comments made during a news conference late last year.

Sonko had claimed the minister allegedly stole $47 million from a government agency.

He also faces separate charges of rape and making death threats, based on a complaint by an employee at a beauty salon where he was getting a massage.

'Political tool'

Guilty verdicts could render Sonko ineligible to stand in the February 2024 presidential election.

The opposition leader denies the charges and accused authorities of using the justice system to silence its opponents.

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Both the government and the opposition accuse each other of stoking political tensions, while religious and civil society leaders in Senegal call for dialogue.

Urging his supporters to turn out en masse at his court appearance on Thursday, Sonko told his followers that no one would be able to stop his coalition from taking power in February.