The latter now consists of collecting Ousmane Sonko's sponsorship forms and launching the collection campaign as quickly as possible. “I request the delivery of sponsorship forms to Ousmane Sonko. Sonko has always been right about them. They must recognize this decision and not think about appealing…” declared Me Abdoulaye Tall, member of Ousmane Sonko’s pool of lawyers.
He says: “In the coming days, Ayib Daffé, national representative of Ousmane Sonko, should go to the Elections Directorate (DGE) to collect Ousmane Sonko's sponsorship forms. This time, after this decision by the Dakar Court, he would hope to recover the files without a hitch.”
But according to a a legal expert, Sonko’s participation in the upcoming election is doubtful. “Sonko will not be candidate,” the legal expert says:
“The State (Senegalese) has a turnaround time of 10 days to submit an appeal at the Supreme Court (of Senegal). After which it will be about a week to obtain a verdict. However, last day for submission of the sponsorship list which is on the 26 December would have already elapsed. Consequently, the candidate will be considered foreclosed (or ineligible).
“On the other hand, the Constitutional Council reserves the power of appreciation of the dossiers of candidates, and in that context the learned ones will be able to reexamine the said dossier (of Sonko in this case) taking into consideration charges against Ousman Sonko and his associates. Sonko will therefore not be candidate and none among the members of the former party of Pastef will be either.”
Furthermore, State Lawyer Elhadji Diouf has also said the Senegalese government would appeal the decision.
