Detained Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko has been removed from the country’s electoral roll in a move denounced by his political party as “inhumane persecution”. Sonko, who is in hospital on hunger strike, was transferred to intensive care after his condition weakened overnight, the party added.
Senegal‘s media have speculated for days that Sonko may be struck off the electoral list, RFI’s correspondent in Dakar reported.
Sources said Sonko had received a note announcing his removal from the list, and linking it to his recent judiciary issues.
However a spokesman from his Pastef party told RFI that neither Sonko nor the party had been informed of his removal.
The move has been denounced by his supporters, by Pastef and by the coalition of another opposition party.
Prison sentence
Since May Sonko has been the subject of multiple accusations and convictions including “corruption of youth”. He was sentenced to two years in prison following a very public trial led by a beauty salon hostess.
However the court in Dakar acquitted the 49-year-old of other charges of rape and issuing death threats.
The case has deeply divided Senegal and sparked repeated protests, while Sonko’s Pastef party insists the accusations are politically motivated.
Sonko’s removal from the electoral list could stop him from standing in next year’s presidential elections.
Senegalese authorities say that because Sonko was not present at his May trial, his conviction is final and therefore so is his ineligibility to vote.
According to the Senegalese electoral code, a person must be an eligible voter in order to be able to stand as a candidate in an election.
Detention, hunger strike
Sonko has been put under house arrest since late July for allegedly encouraging an insurrection in a separate case.
He’s been on hunger strike for more than two weeks to protest what he says is political harassment from the government.
Pastef on Thursday announced that Sonko had been admitted to an intensive care unit in Dakar as his health continues to deteriorate.”President Macky Sall, his justice minister, his interior minister and all those involved in this inhuman persecution, which ended up putting the life of the leader of the opposition in danger, will be held fully responsible for all that will happen,” the party said in a press release.
It has called for Sonko’s immediate and unconditional release.