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South Africa’s Main Opposition Leader Resists Coalition With ANC

(Bloomberg) — South Africa’s main opposition party will resist forming a coalition with the ruling African National Congress in order to govern the country should it need to.

South Africa’s main opposition party may consider deal with ANC

By Tim Cocks and Nellie Peyton

JOHANNESBURG, March 25 (Reuters) – South Africa’s second most popular party the Democratic Alliance (DA) would consider a deal with the ruling African National Congress should the ANC fail to get the majority it needs to retain power in May elections, its leader said on Monday.

Pollsters expect the ANC to lose its legislative majority on May 29 for the first time since Nelson Mandela took power at the end of apartheid 30 years ago, with voters unhappy with poor service delivery, joblessness, crime and power cuts.

If that happens, President Cyril Ramaphosa or a successor for the top job would be unable to stay on without a coalition, since South Africa’s parliament elects the president.

“It would depend which ANC you’re dealing with and what their programme of action is,” DA leader John Steenhuisen said, declining to disclose whether any talks had already taken place.

“I’m not ruling out anything, depending on what the election results are.”

The ANC’s Deputy Party Secretary Nomvula Mokonyane told Reuters earlier this month the party was not considering a coalition government with other parties, and that she did not think a power-sharing deal would work.

The DA has banded together with smaller parties to try to capture the more than 50% of the vote needed to take power.

They include the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party, long a bitter rival of the ANC, as well as Freedom Front Plus, which appeals to rural white South Africans who feel politically marginalised since the fall of apartheid, and Action SA, which has built a platform on a tough anti-immigration stance and appeals to working and middle class voters.

“It’s a long shot,” Steenhuisen said. He added that if the opposition coalition did not win, his priority would be to prevent the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) getting a seat on the executive.

The DA is seen as a pro-business party, whereas businesses and wealthy individuals dislike the EFF, which is popular with poor, Black South Africans. The EFF promises to nationalise industries and fix inequalities in land ownership.

“I won’t sit back and just watch the country handed over to the radical Socialists,” Steenhuisen said. “If the (opposition coalition) doesn’t get over the line, we may have to look at making what is the least worst option.”

If in power, the DA would seek to pursue its policy of privatising the power sector rather than rely on state provider Eskom, and eliminating red tape to make it easier for the private sector to operate, Steenhuisen said.

He reiterated the DA policy of abandoning the ANC’s flagship Black empowerment scheme in favour of one focused solely on reducing poverty, regardless of skin colour.

Race is a divisive issue in South Africa, and the DA is still seen by many as the party of white privilege.

“I don’t buy that,” Steenhuisen said. “The biggest beneficiaries of good, clean, accountable government are poor, marginalised South Africans.” (Editing by Barbara Lewis)

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Opposition leader Faye ahead to win presidency

Opposition leader Bassirou Diomaye Faye has emerged as favourite to win Senegal’s presidential election, after several rivals conceded.

Millions took part in a peaceful vote on Sunday, following three years of turbulence and opposition protests against the incumbent, Macky Sall.

Voters had a choice of 19 candidates.

However, the ruling coalition’s choice, Amadou Ba, rejected reports of defeat and said he expected to contest a run-off vote to decide a winner.

Mr Faye, 44, a member of the Pastef party led by Ousmane Sonko, had been in jail only days before the vote. Mr Sonko was disqualified from the race because of a defamation conviction.

The first set of tallies announced on television showed Mr Faye had won the majority of votes, triggering widespread street celebrations in the capital Dakar.

Supporters set off fireworks, waved Senegalese flags and blew vuvuzelas.

The results also led to five opposition candidates declaring Mr Faye the winner. Anta Babacar Ngom, one of the front-runners, wished Mr Faye success in a statement.

Mr Sonko backed Mr Faye, the co-creator of his now dissolved Pastef party, who was also detained almost a year ago on charges including defamation and contempt of court.

An amnesty law passed this month allowed their release days before the vote.

They have campaigned together under the banner “Diomaye is Sonko”. Some high-profile politicians and opposition candidates have backed Mr Faye’s candidacy.

“The population is choosing between continuation and rupture,” Mr Faye said after casting his vote, urging contenders to accept the winner.

Prepare for run-off

Mr Sall, the incumbent, was not on the ballot for the first time in Senegal’s history. His ruling coalition picked Mr Ba, 62, a former prime minister.

Mr Ba’s campaign said that “considering the feedback of the results from our team of experts, we are certain that, in the worst case scenario, we will go to a run-off”.

About 7.3 million people were registered to vote in the country of around 18 million.

It is not clear how many of the 15,633 polling stations have been counted so far. Final provisional results are expected by Tuesday.

The election had been due to take place last month but Mr Sall postponed it, triggering deadly opposition protests.

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US vows to keep Syria’s chemical weapons program in UN spotlight over Russian and Chinese opposition

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and its allies vowed Tuesday to keep Syria’s failure to account for its chemical weapons program in the spotlight at the U.N. Security Council every month despite opposition from Russia and China.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government “has repeatedly lied to the international community” and to investigators from the international chemical weapons watchdog, which has confirmed that it used these banned weapons on at least nine occasions.

She said the Biden administration will continue to demand a full accounting from Syria as it pledged after joining the Chemical Weapons Convention in September 2013, when it was pressed by its close ally Russia following a deadly chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, which the West blamed on Damascus.

For the first time, Russia and China refused to speak at the monthly meeting on the Syria chemical weapons issue, saying they are repetitive and should be cut back.

Syria’s minister counsellor Alhakan Dandy did speak, saying his country was surprised at this month’s meeting “given that there have been no developments that would require it,” other than what he called continuous attempts by the United States “to exploit the chemical weapons file to serve their agenda of hostility against Syria.”

He repeated Syria’s condemnation of the use of chemical weapons and called claims it used such weapons in Ghouta, where more than 1,400 people were killed, “lies.” He also insisted the Syrian military doesn’t possess any chemical weapons.

Dandy said Syria has cooperated with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which monitors implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. But he also accused its investigators of being politicized and “using unprofessional working methods and double standards.”

U.N. deputy disarmament chief Adedeji Ebo told the council, however, that Syria has failed again to provide the OPCW with a full accounting of its program, citing “gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies” in its declaration.

He singled out unanswered questions about activities at Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center “and the declaration of quantities of nerve agents produced at one chemical weapons production facility that was declared by the Syrian Arab Republic as never having been used to produce chemical weapons.”

Ebo reiterated the U.N.’s repeated call on Syria “to respond with urgency” to all OPCW questions.

Syrian representatives did meet a delegation from the OPCW’s technical secretariat in Beirut on June 22 and 23, and Ebo said Syria committed to present proposals for better implementing its obligations. He said the OPCW is waiting to hear from Damascus about resuming consultations.

Thomas-Greenfield expressed regret that two permanent council members, which she didn’t name, didn’t speak. Russia and China were the only countries to remain silent.

“The Assad regime is betting that this council will simply move on,” she said. “It is hoping we will change the subject.”

“We must not succumb to fatigue or, worse, indifference. The Assad regime used weapons of mass destruction against its own people. … And we will not move on, and the regime will not escape accountability,” the U.S. ambassador said.

There was widespread support from other council members that Syria must answer all questions from the OPCW, although the United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the council, said the council should discuss the Syria chemical weapons issue every three months, not every month.

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Jailed Russian opposition politician Navalny gets 19 more years in prison, says his team

MELEKHOVO, Russia (Reuters) -Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was sentenced on Friday to an additional 19 years in prison after being found guilty on a series of new charges, Navalny’s supporters said on social media.

In a video feed from a court hearing at a penal colony east of Moscow, Navalny could be seen wearing a black prison uniform and standing with his arms folded as he listened to the verdicts.

The audio feed from the court was so poor that it was practically impossible to make out what the judge was saying.

Navalny, the most prominent opponent of President Vladimir Putin, is already serving 11-1/2 years in the penal colony on charges including fraud that he says were trumped up to silence him.

He had predicted on the eve of the verdict that he would receive a “Stalinist” sentence of about 18 more years.

The battery of new charges related to alleged extremist activity by the 47-year-old politician.

(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark TrevelyanEditing by Gareth Jones)

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Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny to 19 more years in prison

A Russian court on Friday issued its verdict in a new case against jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny, convicting the politician of promoting “extremism” and extending his time in prison by 19 years, according to Russian state media and his own team.

Navalny, who emerged as the most outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin’s government before he was imprisoned, is already serving a nine-year term in a high-security prison about 150 miles east of Moscow for parole violations, fraud, and contempt of court.

Navalny and many outside observers have always considered those charges politically motivated retaliation for his criticism of Putin and the Kremlin’s policies, both foreign and domestic.

In the new trial, Navalny was accused of creating an extremist organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation. That organization has authored multiple investigations into the riches of the Russian elite. He also founded a network of nearly 40 regional offices that sought to challenge Kremlin-approved local politicians.

Both groups were outlawed as extremist organizations in 2021, a designation that exposed people involved in their operations to criminal prosecution.

Navalny faced a total of seven serious charges in the trial, including participating in and funding extremist activities, creating an NGO that “infringes on the rights of citizens,” involving minors in dangerous acts, and rehabilitating Nazism. He was convicted on all but the last of those charges Friday.

In April, Navalny said a separate proceeding had been launched against him stemming from the extremism case, in which he would stand accused of terrorism and be tried by a military court.

At the time, the politician said he expected the trials to result in life imprisonment.

“The sentence will be a long one,” Navalny said in a statement released by his organization Thursday, before the verdict was announced in the case. “I urge you to think why such a demonstratively huge sentence is necessary. Its main purpose is to intimidate. You, not me. I will even say this: you personally, the one reading these lines.”

The trial was held behind closed doors. Navalny’s parents were denied entry to the court and have not seen their son for over a year.

Daniel Kholodny, who used to work for Navalny’s YouTube channel, was also charged with funding and promoting extremism and was sentenced to prison on Friday, but due to a poor quality audio feed from inside the closed courtroom, there was confusion about how many years he was given.

In a Thursday statement, Navalny said Kholodny was part of his technical production staff, but that investigators had “made him up to be an ‘organizer’ of an extremist community,” and attempted to pressure Kholodny into a deal: freedom in exchange for damning testimony against Navalny and his allies.

Navalny has been put in solitary confinement 17 times at the IK-6 prison, a facility known for its oppressive conditions and violent inmates.

In previous statements, his team described how the prison administration denied him family visits and punished him for transgressions as minor as having an unbuttoned shirt.

Navalny was arrested in January 2021 immediately upon his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin — a claim Russian officials have always denied.

Shortly after his arrest, a court sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in prison for violating the parole conditions of a 2014 suspended sentence in a fraud case that Navalny insists was politically motivated.

From that point on, the number of cases and charges against him snowballed, with his allies saying the Kremlin’s goal has always been to keep him locked up for as long as possible.

Following Navalny’s imprisonment, the country’s authorities launched a sweeping crackdown on his associates and supporters. Many have been forced to flee the country, while others have been imprisoned, including the head of his regional office Liliya Chanysheva.

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Russia court sentences Alexey Navalny, jailed opposition leader and Putin critic, to 19 more years in prison

Navalny and many outside observers have always considered those charges politically motivated retaliation for his criticism of Putin and the Kremlin’s policies, both foreign and domestic.

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny sentenced to 9 years in prison

04:21

Both groups were outlawed as extremist organizations in 2021, a designation that exposed people involved in their operations to criminal prosecution.

In April, Navalny said a separate proceeding had been launched against him stemming from the extremism case, in which he would stand accused of terrorism and be tried by a military court.

At the time, the politician said he expected the trials to result in life imprisonment.

The trial was held behind closed doors. Navalny’s parents were denied entry to the court and have not seen their son for over a year.

Daniel Kholodny, who used to work for Navalny’s YouTube channel, was also charged with funding and promoting extremism and was expected to be sentenced Friday.

Navalny has been put in solitary confinement 17 times at the IK-6 prison, a facility known for its oppressive conditions and violent inmates.

In previous statements, his team described how the prison administration denied him family visits and punished him for transgressions as minor as having an unbuttoned shirt.

Fiona Hill welcomes “obligatory” new U.S. sanctions on Russia over Navalny poisoning

06:34

From that point on, the number of cases and charges against him snowballed, with his allies saying the Kremlin’s goal has always been to keep him locked up for as long as possible.

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Zimbabwe’s opposition leader tells AP intimidation is forcing voters to choose ruling party or death

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of violating the law and tearing apart independent institutions to cling to power.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Nelson Chamisa also warned that any evidence of tampering by Mnangagwa’s ruling party in upcoming elections could lead to “total disaster” for a beleaguered nation that is in economic ruin and already under United States and European Union sanctions for its human rights record.

Chamisa, who will challenge Mnangagwa and the ruling ZANU-PF party’s 43-year hold on power in the Aug. 23 presidential, parliamentary and local government elections, claimed widespread intimidation against his opposition party ahead of the vote.

Chamisa said Mnangagwa has utilized institutions like the police and the courts to crack down on critical figures, ban opposition rallies and prevent candidates from running. In the AP interview, he laid out a series of concerns that indicate the country, with its history of violent and disputed elections, could be heading for another one.

In rural areas far from the international spotlight, many of Zimbabwe’s 15 million people are making their political choices under the threat of violence, Chamisa alleged. People are getting driven to ruling party rallies and threatened to support Mnangagwa and the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front if they want to stay safe — or even alive.

Chamisa, who leads the Citizens Coalition for Change party, called it a choice of “death or ZANU-PF” for some.

“Mnangagwa is clearly triggering a national crisis,” he said during the interview in his 11th-floor office in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. “He is driving the country into chaos. He is actually instigating instability. He is violating the law. He is tearing apart institutions of the country.”

On Thursday, a man wearing the yellow colors of Chamisa’s CCC party was beaten and stoned to death on the way to a political rally, police said. The CCC accused ZANU-PF followers of killing him and attacking other opposition supporters.

Mnangagwa has repeatedly denied allegations of intimidation and violence by authorities or his party and has publicly called on his supporters to act peacefully during the campaign.

But Chamisa’s portrayal of a highly repressive political landscape in the southern African nation — where the removal of autocrat Robert Mugabe in 2017 appears to have been a false dawn — is backed by reports released by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch ahead of the elections taking place in less than three weeks.

They will take place amid “five years of brutal crackdowns on human rights,” Amnesty said, since Mnangagwa gained power from Mugabe in a coup and then won a disputed presidential election by a razor-thin margin against Chamisa in 2018. In its assessment, Human Rights Watch said Zimbabwean authorities have “weaponized the criminal justice system against the ruling party’s opponents” and the buildup to the vote has not met free and fair international standards.

Zimbabwe has significant mineral resources — including Africa’s largest deposits of highly sought-after lithium — and rich agricultural potential, and could be of huge benefit to the continent if it gained the political and economic stability that has eluded it for years. Zimbabwe was shunned by the West for two decades because of abuses during the regime of Mugabe, who died in 2019.

Mugabe’s removal sent Zimbabweans into the streets to celebrate, and Mnangagwa promised democracy and freedom would be born from the coup. He maintained recently that “Zimbabwe is now a mature democracy” under him.

Rights groups say it’s a mirage and the 80-year-old Mnangagwa, a former Mugabe ally once known as his enforcer, has been as repressive as the man he removed.

Under Mnangagwa, critics and opposition figures have been jailed, including CCC lawmaker Job Sikhala, who has been in detention for over a year after accusing ruling party supporters of hacking to death an opposition activist. Some have faced legal backlash for seemingly minor criticisms, like world-renowned author Tsitsi Dangarembga, who was arrested for participating in a protest that called for better services for citizens.

A court decision disqualified all 12 CCC candidates in Bulawayo, the second-largest city, from standing in the election, even after the electoral agency said they had registered properly. They successfully appealed to the Supreme Court to be allowed to stand.

“I am nowhere near the court,” Mnangagwa said, denying any influence on the initial decision to bar the opposition candidates.

Chamisa, a 45-year-old lawyer and pastor, said Mnangagwa was now overseeing a second coup in Zimbabwe.

“You can’t have a contest without contestation. You can’t have an election without candidates,” Chamisa said. “Once you eliminate candidates, you are actually eliminating an election. And that’s the point we are making. … It’s a coup on choices.”

The elections will be monitored by observers from the European Union and African Union, who were invited by Mnangagwa. He says he has nothing to hide. Human Rights Watch has questioned if the observers will be allowed to access all parts of the country, while their small numbers make it likely they won’t be able to monitor the entire vote. There are 150 observers from the EU and more than 12,500 polling stations across the country.

Chamisa told the AP that his party has put in place systems to be able to independently check vote counts, but there are also doubts that the CCC can deploy enough members to watch over those stations, many deep in rural areas regarded as ZANU-PF strongholds.

Should their calculations show fraud this time, as was alleged in 2018 and other elections before that, Chamisa warned it will “plunge the country into total disaster and chaos.”

He urged Mnangagwa to step back from his repressive policies in a country denied democracy under white minority rule before 1980 and again — according to international rights groups — under the only two leaders it has seen since: Mugabe and Mnangagwa.

“He must be stopped because he can’t drive the whole nation and plunge it into darkness and an abyss on account of just wanting to retain power,” Chamisa said of Mnangagwa. “Zimbabweans deserve peace, they deserve rest. They have suffered for a long time.”

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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Russia’s opposition leader behind bars

Navalny, already serving nine years, expects to receive a lengthy "Stalinist" sentence of 18 years on Friday (Natalia KOLESNIKOVA) — Navalny, already serving nine years, expects to receive a lengthy “Stalinist” sentence of 18 years on Friday (Natalia KOLESNIKOVA)

Russia gives few glimpses nowadays of Alexei Navalny, an opposition icon who leveraged social media and fatigue with the Kremlin to rise to stardom before being poisoned and jailed.

He now only appears in grainy videos from court hearings at his maximum-security prison — occasions he has used to slam the Kremlin for what he sees as its latest folly: attacking Ukraine.

“(Russia) is floundering in a pool of either mud or blood, with broken bones, with a poor and robbed population, and around it lie tens of thousands of people killed in the most stupid and senseless war of the 21st century,” Navalny said at his last hearing in July.

The most prominent Kremlin critic inside Russia over the last decade, 47-year-old Navalny is serving a nine-year prison sentence near Moscow on embezzlement charges he and his allies contest.

But authorities on Friday are expected to add 20 years to his term for extremism, building on a sweeping clampdown on any dissent since launching large-scale hostilities in Ukraine in 2022.

Navalny’s criticism of the military intervention is just the latest chapter of his long and dramatic fight against ruling elites and his activism has taken many forms.

– ‘I am not afraid’ –

He has campaigned across the country to be president, published corruption investigations that embarrassed the Kremlin and rallied massive crowds onto Russia’s streets.

His message — pumped to fans through glitzy social media content — contrasts dramatically to that of Vladimir Putin, a Soviet-styled, 70-year-old former KGB agent who has ruled without compromise for over 20 years.

Navalny returned to Russia from Germany in early 2021 after recuperating from a near-fatal poisoning attack with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent.

His return to Russia despite facing jail put him on a collision course with Putin, after Navalny blamed the poisoning attack in Siberia on the Kremlin.

“I’m not afraid and I call on you not to be afraid,” he said in an appeal to supporters as he landed in Moscow, moments before being detained on charges linked to an old fraud conviction.

His arrest spurred some of the largest demonstrations Russia had seen in decades, and thousands were detained at rallies nationwide calling for his release.

– Putin ‘fears me’ –

Navalny countered with the release of “Putin’s Palace,” an investigation into a lavish Black Sea mansion that his team claimed was gifted to Putin through corruption.

The expose forced a rare denial from Putin, who quipped that if his security services had really been behind the poisoning, they would have finished the job.

While Navalny traffics confidently in memes, Putin is known both for not using the internet and asking a teenager who wanted him to follow his YouTube channel: “What should I sign?”

A similar Navalny corruption video targeting then prime minister Dmitry Medvedev spurred large demonstrations in 2017, with protesters carrying rubber ducks which became a symbol of the protests.

Ahead of a presidential election in 2018, Navalny toured cities across the country to drum up support but was barred from running because of the old fraud charge.

“(Putin) fears me and he fears the people I represent,” he told AFP at the time.

Before that he had challenged Sergei Sobyanin to become Moscow mayor and forced a runoff.

– ‘Crooks and thieves’ –

At rallies and in courtrooms, Navalny is a convincing public speaker and rallied protesters around home-grown slogans like “the party of crooks and thieves” to slam the ruling United Russia party.

But he has been tainted by an early foray into far-right nationalism, and a pro-gun video from 2007 routinely resurfaces in which he compares people from the ex-Soviet South Caucasus region to cockroaches.

Navalny also remains a fringe figure for a large portion of Russian society, who back the Kremlin’s official portrayal of him as a Western stooge and convicted criminal.

Before he was sentenced in February 2020, he had become such a thorn in the Kremlin’s side that Putin refused to pronounce his name in public. His anti-corruption group was shuttered and his top allies are either imprisoned or in exile.

– ‘Cannot shut my mouth’ –

Navalny’s team says he has been harassed in prison and repeatedly moved to a punitive solitary confinement cell.

He says guards have subjected him and other inmates to “torture by Putin”, making them listen to the president’s speeches.

Still Navalny is upbeat and sardonic on social media accounts curated by aides.

The lawyer by training has fought for basic rights and taken prison officials to court. He has also tormented them, filing formal requests for a kimono and a balalaika — a traditional musical instrument — and to be allowed to keep a kangaroo.

“You cannot shut my mouth,” he declared.

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Ousmane Sonko: Senegalese opposition leader charged

Ousmane Sonko, the firebrand opposition leader at the heart of Senegalese politics, has been charged with various new offences, including calling for insurrection – and put in detention.

His supporters believe these charges are politically motivated – to prevent him from standing in next year’s elections, which the authorities have denied.

In June, he was at the centre of a controversial rape trial which saw him sentenced to two years in prison for “corrupting youth”, meaning he was found to have acted immorally towards an individual younger than 21, after allegations made by a massage therapist. He was, however, acquitted of rape and making death threats.

That sentencing sparked violent protests in one of Africa’s most stable nations which left at least 16 people dead and hundreds injured, according to officials.

However, he wasn’t taken to prison but remained under house arrest, until Friday when he was arrested on the latest charges.

In order to forestall a repeat of such protests, Senegal has restricted access to the internet, as it did in June.

Who is Ousmane Sonko?

Despite the controversial rape trial, he is hugely popular among young Senegalese people who demand change amid a backdrop of economic hardship. His critics, however, accuse his movement of being a populist surge stoking division and tension.

Some say the 48-year-old tax inspector-turned-whistle-blower is so popular because he has been electrifying young people with a slick social media campaign, which he uses to rip into Senegalese elites and whip up nationalist sentiment.

Using his youthful charm and digital connection with the youth, Mr Sonko drums up support by posing as a generational shift from Senegal’s old political order.

A public law graduate, he rose from being dismissed as a tax inspector for speaking publicly about alleged tax evasion to become a member of the National Assembly, and then last year mayor of the southern city of Ziguinchor.

In and out of court since 2021, not much has been achieved during his tenure as mayor, but his supporters say he gives them hope and is an anti-corruption figurehead.

“He’s anti-system,” says step-dancer Pape Samba Ndour, a staunch supporter of Mr Sonko. “The system we got has been here since 1960. We want a new image of Senegal. He’s against corruption.”

Mr Sonko was the youngest candidate in the country’s 2019 presidential election where he came third with about 16% of the vote. His fiery campaign speeches denouncing the government resonated favourably with many young Senegalese – and the country has a large youth population, with the average age in the country being 19, according to a government report.

A crowd of Sonko supporters — Mr Sonko’s supporters fear his conviction could bar him from running in elections next year

The Patriots of Senegal (Pastef), the party he formed in 2014, has also gained political momentum.

Many young Senegalese frustrated by economic and social inequalities see the party as a viable alternative, in a country where nearly four in 10 live below the poverty line and about 22% of working age people are without a job.

“President Macky Sall didn’t factor them [youths] into his political decisions,” former Prime Minister Aminata Touré, a former close ally of Mr Sall but now one of his harshest critics, tells the BBC.

So Mr Sonko’s promise to create jobs and grow the economy, which the World Bank says slowed down last year, has attracted followers.

But his detractors say he is a rabble-rouser who uses populism to win public sympathy.

Women’s right groups also condemned Mr Sonko for making derogatory comments about the woman he was accused of raping during his trial, comparing her to a “monkey” who had had a stroke.

Others highlight his inflammatory language, such as in 2018, when he said that “those who have ruled Senegal deserve to be shot”.

More recently, they say the rhetoric of his Pastef party, which called on citizens to “stop all activity and take to the streets” after he was sentenced, encouraged protests. He denies this.

French resentment

His criticism of Senegal elites’ cosy relationship with France also strikes a chord among his supporters.

Revisiting Senegal’s uneasy relations with it former colonial power, France, is a growing public debate in the West African country.

France has been a target of embittered African complaints and criticism, especially among progressive Francophone West African commentators and urban youths.

Although China overtook it in 2019, France is historically Senegal’s largest source of foreign investment. Many French businesses such as supermarkets, petrol stations, mobile phone shops and other firms operate in Senegal, which some believe is harming the interests of local business owners.

It is common to see French-owned businesses being targeted during deadly protests like the ones last month. The slogan “France Dégage” (France Out) is also popular during demonstrations.

Protesters in Dakar — Recent protests following Mr Sonko’s initial arrest turned violent

Before now a taboo subject in Senegalese political discourse, Mr Sonko’s call for a “responsible and intelligent” exit from the CFA franc – the regional currency used by 14 African countries most of which are francophone and pegged to the euro under a French government guarantee – has increased his popularity. While supporters say this guarantees financial stability, critics say it is a way for France to continue to exercise control over the countries which use it.

For one, Mr Ndour, 27, supports Mr Sonko because he “is against” giving all of Senegal’s resources to France.

Mr Sonko says he has “nothing against France, or against any other country”.

But the centuries-old links between Senegal and France are “based on relations that are not completely rosy for Senegal”, he told state-owned France Médias Monde.

Election in the balance

Pastef’s achievement of gaining 56 of Senegal’s 165 parliamentary seats in the 2022 National Assembly election after forming an alliance with four other parties has emboldened the party and Mr Sonko’s supporters that they have a good shot at the presidency.

But Mr Sonko’s name may be missing on the ballot in next February’s polls because his conviction appears to threaten his eligibility, according to Senegal’s electoral code. However he can ask for retrial.

But now that he faces trial on different charges, that looks more difficult.

For his supporters, this brings flashbacks of the convictions that barred two strong opposition candidates ahead of the 2019 presidential election.

Both Karim Wade, the son of former President Abdoulaye Wade, and Khalifa Sall, a former mayor of Dakar who is not related to President Sall, were jailed for graft and corruption in 2015 and 2018, respectively.

Critics say the government is using the judiciary to hound the opposition.

The government retorts that there is a separation of powers and accuses the opposition of pitching the public against it and stoking chaos.

Mr Ndour, who has been organising demonstrations online, hopes Mr Sonko and every other potential candidate are not barred from running for the presidency.

Much of the anger over Mr Sonko’s arrest was fuelled by speculation that President Sall could run for a third term, which they argued was unconstitutional. He has since announced that he will not, which Mr Sonko’s supporters see as victory.

However, that victory would feel empty if their man’s name is also missing from the ballot paper.

Additional reporting by Hamet Fall Diagne and Gaïus Kowene.

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