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00:00 On Sunday, Senegal's main opposition party, PASTEF, said it was backing Bassiro Djomai
00:05 Fay as an alternative presidential candidate, with their first choice, Ousmane Sonko, currently
00:11 barred from running.
00:13 All candidates are required to collect 45,000 signatures of support from the public in order
00:19 to compete in the race.
00:20 "We are confident that we have collected at least 2 million signatures of support through
00:24 the strategies we put in place."
00:27 But on Monday, party chiefs caveated the naming of Bassiro Djomai Fay as a candidate, saying
00:32 their first choice remains Ousmane Sonko, a firebrand figure dogged by legal trouble.
00:38 "Once the signatures are collected, Fay will submit his dossier to the Constitutional Council.
00:45 Ousmane Sonko is still our first choice.
00:48 We'll put strategies in place to ensure that we're able to stand up to a regime whose only
00:52 goals are to prevent Ousmane Sonko from running as candidate and to destroy PASTEF."
01:01 Bassiro Djomai Fay is currently in detention, serving a seven-month sentence for crimes
01:06 including the spreading of fake news.
01:09 Political analysts say that PASTEF, a party officially dissolved by the government in
01:13 July, is taking a significant electoral risk.
01:17 "Many supporters have an almost visceral attachment to Ousmane Sonko, who has a lot of charisma
01:23 and personifies the hopes of many.
01:26 Alongside the political and judicial challenges facing Bassiro Djomai Fay at the moment, we
01:31 have to see whether he'll be able to capture Ousmane Sonko's popularity."
01:43 The definitive list of candidates permitted to run in next year's presidential election
01:48 will be published on January 20.