On January 20, 2024, Bloomberg Africa tweeted a picture of Ousmane Sonko with a link attached. The image had this caption: “Senegal’s main opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, has been disqualified from running for president in next month’s elections.”
The report has been circulated across several news platforms, blogs and social media pages ahead of Senegal’s presidential election slated for February 25th, 2024.
Claim: Ousmane Sonko has been disqualified from running for president in the February 25th presidential election in Senegal
Verification:
Ousmane Sonko is the presidential candidate of Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail, l’éthique et la fraternité (PASTEF), also called The African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity or just Patriots of Senegal. PASTEF is the major opposition political party in Senegal and was founded in 2014 by Ousmane Sonko. He was the party’s flagbearer in 2019, contested and came third.
In July 2023, Sonko’s PANDEF party was dissolved for allegedly stoking civil unrest and rallying his supporters for violent protests, which led to a clash with the police in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Shortly after, he was arrested and detained for alleged insurrection, undermining state security, criminal association with a terrorist body and theft. Sonko remains in prison to date and considers the victimisation, various charges and convictions as plots to keep him out of the presidential election.
Ahead of the presidential election slated for February 25, 2024, while still in prison, he remains one of the frontline presidential candidates, indicating that the presidential poll will be a political tussle between him and Amadou Ba of the ruling party.
However, there was a twist as the Constitutional Council named 20 candidates out of 79 applications the body reportedly received. According to the list released by Senegal’s highest election authority, the Constitutional Council, Ousmane Sonko and a host of other presidential candidates were disqualified from contesting the election.
The Constitutional Council said his disqualification from the ballot was because he faces a six-month suspended sentence following his conviction for defamation. Sonko, who had earlier approached the Supreme Court to overturn the conviction, was dealt a blow as the highest court in Senegal upheld the defamation conviction against him.
Acting on this Court verdict, the Council said according to Senegal’s electoral code, Sonko’s conviction makes him ineligible for the presidential race. They added that the conviction “renders him ineligible for a period of five years.”
Other frontline candidates disqualified by the Constitutional Council included Karim Wade, the son of former Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade. The Constitutional Council said he was ineligible for the ballot as he had dual citizenship when he formally declared his presidential candidacy.
Verdict: TRUE
The CDD War Room found that Ousmane Sonko is facing a six-month sentence in prison, having been convicted of defamation. His candidacy was disqualified by Senegal’s Constitutional Council after the Supreme Court pronouncement. Therefore, the embattled PANDEF aspirant will not contest the presidential election slated for February 25, 2024.
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