Senegal election campaign ends with rallies, protests for and against Wade's 3rd term bid

Senegal election campaign ends with rallies and protests for and against Wade’s 3rd term bid

By Fran Blandy in Dakar

AFP: Senegal wrapped up an election campaign Friday marred by deadly protests against President Abdoulaye Wade’s bid for a third term in office, which have upset its peaceful reputation .
One of Africa’s democratic success stories, the continent’s westernmost state is facing its most tumultuous polls since independence after weeks of riots over the 85-year-old leader’s efforts to cling to power left six dead.
Wade was due to address a final rally in the seaside capital Dakar as the international community called for calm ahead of Sunday’s election.
As some opposition members called for the vote to be delayed, Wade called on the youths in his party to keep a close eye over the polling to prevent the opposition from “sabotaging the election.”
“Supporters, especially the youths, protect my ballots because they are yours…. stay in the polling station until counting starts to phone me and tell me of our victory,” he said during a rally on Thursday, according to the national news agency APS.
As candidates held final rallies, Senegalese women were expected to march against Wade’s candidacy in a suburb of the capital.
The June 23 Movement (M23) opposition grouping called for another protest in downtown Dakar, defying a ban in a now familiar pattern which has sparked near-daily clashes between police and protesters in the past week and a half.
M23 warned Thursday that the election could neither be transparent, nor free, nor peaceful.
A “rapidly worsening security climate… makes it impossible to hold a transparent, free and peaceful election based on respect for the constitution,” it said in a statement.
The movement raised questions about the impartiality of electoral bodies, especially the constitutional council which validated Wade’s candidacy for a third term in the face of opposition protests that it was illegal.
Africa’s top envoy Olusegun Obasanjo will hold meetings on Friday with Elections Minister Cheikh Gueye, United Nation’s West Africa representative Said Djinnit and US ambassador Lewis Lukens.
The former Nigerian president has been sent to the country to head an African Union observer mission, and to attempt to defuse tensions over Wade’s candidacy.
Despite having served two terms in office, a limit he himself introduced, Wade says later changes to the constitution extending term lengths to seven years allow him to serve two more mandates.
Both France and the United States have criticised Wade’s decision to run again, urging him to retire and allow power to pass to the next generation.
Wade has remained defiant in the storm of criticism, calling the opposition protests “temper tantrums” and saying he will not be dictated to by “toubabs”, westerners in the local Wolof language.
Members of the ruling party and its supporting coalition Forces Aligned for Victory released a statement urging Wade to “reject” French and US observer missions and denouncing their “interference” in Senegal’s affairs.
Wade was first elected in 2000, to great euphoria as he unseated the Socialist Party from 40 years in office.
However growing social anger over unemployment and crippling power cuts which spilled into the streets last year heightened tensions with government, reaching breaking point when Wade announced his plans to run again.
Wade says he needs more time in office to finish his “Grand Projects”, but he is accused of seeking to line up his son Karim Wade to succeed him, a move which has incensed the opposition.
Wade is facing 13 opposition candidates including former prime ministers Idrissa Seck, Macky Sall and Moustapha Niasse, and socialist leader Ousmane Tanor Dieng. None is a clear frontrunner.
Analysts say Wade needs to secure a first-round victory while the field is still wide open as he would fare badly in a two-horse race.
Elections minister Gueye says some 469,122 people of the nation’s 5.3 million voters had yet to collect their voter cards.

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