Senegal: The Supreme Court overturns the decision of the Ziguinchor court, and refers the State and Ousmane Sonko to the Dakar high court

The leader of the former Pastef political party, which was dissolved by the Senegalese government, is clearly not out of the woods yet. On Friday 17 November, the Supreme Court overturned the decision of the Ziguinchor court to reinstate Ousmane Sonko on the electoral roll, sending the case back to the Dakar tribunal de grande instance.

Sentenced on 1 June to two years’ imprisonment for corrupting young people, Ousmane Sonko had automatically been struck off the electoral roll.

 However, on 12 October, the Ziguinchor Court of First Instance ordered that the mayor of Ziguinchor be reinstated on the electoral roll.

With the Supreme Court’s decision to refer the two parties back to a court of first instance, Sonko’s lawyers are convinced that the idea is to gain time and keep their client out of the presidential race.

It should be remembered that at the end of September, Sonko’s lawyers ventured to take their case to the West African court, asking it to rule on human rights violations allegedly suffered by their client.

The violations included the right to a fair trial, the freedom to demonstrate and his arrest. However, all these requests were rejected en bloc by the ECOWAS Court of Justice.

At the same time, the Court refused to rule on the dissolution of Ousmane Sonko’s party and his removal from the electoral roll.

Sonko’s lawyers asked the ECOWAS Court of Justice to suspend this decision. To no avail.

At the rate things are going, there is total uncertainty in the ranks of Pastef. Time is running out. The opposition’s lawyers have made no secret of their anger at the last two rulings.

Titi Keita