Kenyan activists are comparing their movement to the protests in Senegal that saw former President Macky Sall's party defeated in elections by Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Ousmane Sonko both in their forties...
Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko hosting the veteran French leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon in Dakar launched a diatribe against France and the EU complaining that they failed to speak out against former President Macky Sall's crackdown on dissent (AC Vol 65 No 4 Fury as Sall's vote delay unleashes mayhem)...
While emancipation from the claims of French dominance of Senegal has been a prominent element of Pastef leader Ousmane Sonko's pitch over the last three years both sides have been preparing for this moment...
Diomaye Faye – from prison to the palais Victory in the 24 March elections for Bassirou Diomaye Faye the presidential candidate of Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail l'éthique et la fraternité (Pastef) – officially dissolved as a party by the authorities but in reality very much alive – is widely seen as a triumph for his political mentor Ousmane Sonko...
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Withdraw from the French-backed Communauté Financière Africaine (CFA) monetary zone restructure public debt and renegotiate the oil gas and mining contracts – these are the policy imperatives that propelled the Bassirou Diomaye Faye-Ousmane Sonko platform to its first-round victory in the 24 March elections...
Leading oppositionist Faye and his mentor Ousmane Sonko want to review the biggest oil gas and mining contracts...
Bassirou Diomaye Faye standing in for the barred Ousmane Sonko was still on remand in jail when the campaign kicked off (AC Vol 65 No 4 Fury as Sall's vote delay unleashes mayhem)...
His commitment to quit and to go ahead with the elections may weaken his hand in negotiations especially with supporters of jailed opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and his officially dissolved Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail l'éthique et la fraternité (Pastef) movement (AC Vol 65 No 1 Sonko's long walk to the ballot box)...
Yet the key opposition player in the drama remains former tax inspector Ousmane Sonko whose claims in his book in 2017 of grand corruption in the country's nascent oil industry badly dented the Sall government's reputation (AC Vol 59 No 23 A well-oiled machine)...
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With reports of a back-channel between Sall's camp and that of jailed oppositionist Ousmane Sonko some last minute deal cannot be excluded...
DISPATCHES
' The decision by the constitutional court to rule as ineligible most of the more than 80 candidates who sought to stand in the first ballot including opposition Pastef les Patriotes leader Ousmane Sonko and Karim Wade was presented as the rationale behind Sall's decision (AC Vol 65 No 3 A crowded field)...
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