Senegal’s former prime minister Aminata Touré has accused the country’s president, Macky Sall, of being behind the parliament’s decision to strip her of her seat after she distanced herself from the president and announced that she will run for president in 2024.
«I never wrote a letter of resignation or announced my resignation from Parliament or from (the Benno Bok Yaakaar (BBY) coalition government),» he said in a statement, in which he pointed to «a clear violation» of the Constitution and the rules of procedure of the National Assembly.
Thus, he pointed out that «it is a robbery ordered by the president, Macky Sall, who does not support the presence of his former head of list in the National Assembly». «On the other hand, Sall supports receiving the most racist politician of France in the Palace of the Republic», he criticized, in reference to the recent visit to the country of Marine Le Pen.
Touré has advanced that he «will go to all national and international judicial channels to put an end to this injustice», which he has described as «one more proof of the president’s attacks against democracy and the generations of Senegalese and Senegalese who fought with sweat and blood».
«Today, this quest for a third term (by Sall) is a line of rupture in the country,» he warned, before indicating that there is «one side that wants to preserve its personal interests, even if it has to burn the country, and another that is determined to defend democracy, the values of social justice, peace, equality and respect for the other.»
«In this fight I will leave myself to my last breath if necessary. I am ready for anything because I consider that life is meaningless without this empty of honor and does not go in line with one’s convictions,» she said in her statement, published on her account on the social network Twitter.
In this line, she warned that «there has never been this level of hatred, abuse of power, exclusion of political sensitivities to those of Sall who want to impose themselves in their quest for a third term that would be a violation of the Constitution, anchor of the Republic».
«Sall wants to impose on us force and nothing but force,» said Touré, who stressed that «his path to a third mandate is something unacceptable from a legal and moral point of view.» «He will use all his possible means against his political adversaries,» he has lamented.
For this reason, he reminded the security forces that «they are exclusively at the service of the Senegalese people and not at the service of Sall’s crypto-personal objectives, something that can also be said to all state bodies, mainly Justice».
«I call on all democrats in this country (…) for a massive mobilization around a national platform for the defense of democracy to preserve the democratic advances», Touré concluded.
The opposition has denounced on several occasions that the president plans to run for a third term, although Sall has ruled out that he will opt for this path. The Senegalese Constitution limits the total number of terms of office to two and an attempt to extend his stay in power could lead to instability.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
