The announcement of their release sparked jubilant scenes and the sound of car horns echoing throughout the streets of Dakar, the Senegalese capital. Sonko, the country's main opposition figure, and Faye, his right-hand man and candidate to replace him in the presidential race scheduled for March 24, left Dakar's Cap-Manuel prison together on the evening of Thursday, March 14. The two men had been incarcerated on several charges, including "calling for insurrection," for seven and 11 months respectively.
A packed crowd gathered outside the prison gates, from which a black SUV emerged during the night, and hundreds of people gathered outside Sonko's home. "Sonko, we've missed you," sang his supporters gathered in Cité Keur Gorgui, many brandishing portraits of their idol.
According to Amnesty International, the two men are the main beneficiaries of the law granting amnesty for acts relating to the political demonstrations that shook Senegal between 2021 and 2024, during which some 60 people were killed. Voted on March 6 by the National Assembly, the law was ratified on Thursday by President Macky Sall, who had fiercely defended it despite the controversy it generated, even within his own camp.
In an attempt to calm the unprecedented political crisis triggered by the postponement of the presidential election announced by Sall on February 3, at least 344 detainees, most of them Sonko supporters arrested during demonstrations in March 2021 and June 2023, had been released on bail in recent weeks. But the extension of this measure to the two main leaders of the Senegalese African Patriots for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF), was still pending. Their release from prison is also the result of multiple mediations, including that of businessman Pierre Goudiaby Atepa. "I'm delighted that the president has kept his word because their release was the aim of my mediation," he told Le Monde.
After the euphoria of their release, the two PASTEF leaders will have to quickly get to work, as the presidential election is scheduled for Sunday, March 24. Their coalition, Diomaye Président, launched its election campaign in grand style in the Dakar suburbs on Sunday.
Convicted of defamation and corrupting the youth, before being imprisoned in July 2023 for calling for insurrection, Sonko was excluded from the electoral lists and declared ineligible. He appointed his successor Faye in his place. The tax inspector general will not be alone on the campaign trail: No less than two other candidates out of the 19 still in the race are backed by PASTEF, a strategy put in place to counter the exclusion of their leader.
Engaged in a decidedly unusual electoral campaign, candidates Habib Sy and Cheikh Tidiane Dièye are on a mission to use their media exposure to the benefit of the Diomaye président coalition, whose slogan, "Diomaye mooy Sonko" ("Diomaye is Sonko") is unequivocal. "After these releases, we're hoping for victory in the first round," exulted Ababacar Sadikh Top, a spokesperson for PASTEF. Former prime minister Amadou Ba, who was nominated by the ruling party, is equally ambitious.
There are only nine days left for candidates to crisscross the country, due to a calendar upset by the cancellation of the ballot originally scheduled for February and now called for March 24. The Senegalese head of state had relied on accusations of corruption against members of the Constitutional Council to decide to postpone the poll until December 2024, before being overruled by the Supreme Court, which forced him to organize the presidential election before his mandate expired on April 2.
Further twists and turns are not to be ruled out, with a Supreme Court hearing scheduled for Friday. The Senegalese Democratic Party, whose candidate Karim Wade was eliminated from the race on the grounds of dual citizenship, has not had its final say and has challenged in court the decree calling the election. "Karim Wade told me yesterday that he was determined that he and Ousmane should be able to take part. We can't calmly move toward an election in 10 days without the main opposition heavyweights," argued architect Pierre Goudiaby Atepa, who is among those calling for a further postponement of the election and a review of the list of candidates.
As it stands, this presidential election promises to be the most open in the history of independence, with Sall and Sonko, the two heavyweights of Senegalese politics, facing off indirectly through their protégés, Ba and Faye.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.