Senegal’s Opposition Worried Democratic Tradition Crumbling
January 29, 2007
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Dakar |
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With its reputation for fair elections
and peaceful transitions of power, Senegal is often hailed as model
democracy in West Africa. Senegalese are scheduled to vote in less than
a month to elect a new president. But on Saturday, police cracked down
on a major political march by the opposition, and now there are
concerns that the country’s democratic reputation is being tarnished.
For VOA, Jordan Davis reports from Dakar.
Political marches in Senegal are relatively
common. Most are uneventful. But a mass march organized by opposition
parties Saturday in Dakar was a different story. Authorities initially
banned it, citing public safety. But opposition leaders decided to hold
the demonstration anyway, and the authorities responded.
Police in riot gear fired tear gas canisters, and hit demonstrators
with batons. Authorities dragged away and briefly detained opposition
leaders, many of them candidates who plan to run against President
Abdoulaye Wade next month.
A witness to the police crackdown, human rights observer Sidiki Kaba, said he was sad for the state of Senegal’s democracy.
Kaba, who is with the Paris-based International Federation for Human
Rights, said the country has made a lot of progress, but now appears to
be slipping backward.
hen Mr. Wade was elected president in 2000, those
elections were viewed as a symbol of the advances democracy had made in
Senegal.
The ruling socialists conceded defeat and handed over power to Mr.
Wade and the liberal PDS party — a peaceful transition rarely seen in
the region. The international community congratulated Senegal for its
commitment to the rule of law.
But that commitment to the rule of law is less clear, opposition
groups say, as the 80-year-old Mr. Wade is set to face the voters in a
month.
In fact, Saturday’s opposition march was originally called to protest the repeated postponement of legislative elections.
They were first canceled in 2005, when Mr. Wade said the country could not afford them in the wake of massive flooding.
Then, several weeks ago, the parliamentary vote set to coincide with
the upcoming presidential elections was delayed yet again when the
country’s high court ruled that the electoral map drawn up by the
ruling party was biased.
Moussa Taye, with the Socialist Party, says many worry Mr. Wade does
not want to hold elections because the economy is not good and that may
cost him votes.
"Democracy means elections," he said. "But when the elections are
postponed, sometimes we are afraid that the elections will be canceled."
In response to growing rumors in newspapers that the government
wants to delay the presidential vote, the ruling PDS party told
reporters it fully supports the February 25 vote going forward as
scheduled.
The ruling party has been criticized for changing rules to benefit
Mr. Wade. It pushed through parliament a measure dropping the
requirement that turnout be above 50 percent for a winning presidential
candidate to avoid going to a runoff.
That change was made just a few months before scheduled presidential
elections, despite a good-governance agreement among the Economic
Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, not to change election
rules six months before a poll.
Moussa Taye said, "Abdoulaye Wade who is a member of ECOWAS and who
tries to organize peace and another constitution in Guinea and other
parts of Africa, in his own country cannot organize clear elections."
Kissy Agyeman, an analyst with London-based Global Insight, says,
the atmosphere ahead of elections next month is somewhat troubling.
But, she says, it is not too late for Senegal to save its democratic reputation.
"I think that if the elections do come off at the slated time, the
25th of February, then Senegal can hold on to this idea that it is a
democratic nation. But I think it is going to be a little blighted by
the fact that the legislatives [legislative elections] have been
postponed," she said.
Ultimately, says Agyeman, damage to Senegal’s international
reputation probably will not be too serious. The country is popular
with international donors largely because it is considered a bastion of
stability in a troubled region.
She said, "Countries such as Guinea, Cote D’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Liberia. They all have much more pressing problems."
"So I think it is quite possible that the elections could go, not
unnoticed, I wouldn’t say that, but it will not get the same kind of
attention. Because there is this sort of preconceived idea that Senegal
will be fine," Agyeman added.
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