African Opposition Leaders Move to Halt Senegal Democracy Slide
(Bloomberg) -- A group of African opposition politicians have banded together to check democratic backsliding on the continent, starting with Senegal where presidential elections next year may exclude the main opposition candidate.
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Martha Karua, who ran for vice president in Kenya, and Kizza Besigye, a longtime rival of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, are among key politicians calling for Ousmane Sonko to be allowed to run in Senegal’s Feb. 25 vote after a “fact-finding” mission to Dakar, the capital city.
A presidential race without Sonko “would be a blot on Senegal’s democratic record,” Karua said in an interview on Nov. 10. “We are telling President Macky Sall: ‘Don’t let Senegal decline under your watch.’”
Sonko, once considered the biggest threat to Senegal’s ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar coalition, has faced a succession of legal woes over the past two years. He held a 34-day hunger strike from July 30 to protest what his party called an “arbitrary arrest.” The government has denied that the charges against Sonko are politically motivated.
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The delegation failed to meet Sall while in Dakar, Besigye said. They didn’t see Sonko, who remains under arrest in a hospital ward, and inaccessible even to his family, he said. They met with members of Sonko’s disbanded party, known as Pastef, other opposition politicians, civil society groups and journalists.
Senegal has been included in a watchlist of five countries in which the civic space is facing rapid decline. The rankings were compiled by CIVICUS, a platform that tracks the violation of civic freedoms globally. Senegalese authorities have increased repression of opposition and dissenting voices, including journalists, it said in September.
The support of East African opposition leaders “means a lot,” said Yassine Fall, Pastef’s vice president in charge of international affairs. “Opposition is important for democracy,” she said.
Read More: Senegal Leader Backs His Prime Minister to Run for President
Senegal’s presidential hopefuls have until Dec. 10 to collect at least 40,000 signatures from citizens supporting their candidacy, or 13 endorsements from lawmakers. These signatures are collected in a sponsorship form that the Ministry of Interior’s elections directorate has so far refused to release to Sonko, in defiance of a court order — and a request by the country’s independent election body — to do so.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Interior didn’t respond to a text message and calls seeking comment. The regional court for the Economic Community of West African States is set to give its ruling on Nov. 17 on the dissolution of Pastef and Sonko’s right to run, Fall said. A Senegalese Supreme Court ruling on the matter is also expected this month.
John Mnyika, secretary-general of Chadema, a key opposition party in Tanzania, where the ruling party has been in power for more than 60 years, was also part of the new group that seeks to recruit more opposition leaders across the continent.
“Even in Tanzania, the situation is not that good,” he said. “That’s why we’re here in solidarity.”
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