Senegal poll results ‘rejected’
February 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Two leading presidential candidates in Senegal say they do not accept unofficial results that show incumbent Abdoulaye Wade has won Sunday’s polls.
Partial results indicate that Mr Wade, 81, has more than 55% of the vote making a run-off unnecessary, Senegal’s official news agency reports.
But Ousmane Tanor Dieng and Abdoulaye Bathily say there were irregularities.
Analysts say that it will be surprising if there is no second round, given the mood in the country before polling.
A candidate needs to gain more than 50% of the vote to avoid a second round.
A commission at the appeals court has until Friday to announce the official results.
Senegal, a predominately Muslim nation, is seen as a rare model of stable democracy in Africa.
Observers from regional body the Economic Community Of West African States have said the voting on Sunday was free and fair.
Suspicion
The BBC’s Tidiane Sy in the capital Dakar, says most Senegalese were expecting there to be a second round.
"We will not accept these results," Aissata Tall Sall, Mr Dieng’s spokeswoman, told a press conference.
The Socialist Party leader Mr Dieng, who served under the previous president, Abdou Diouf, has been seen as a strong contender.
His party, which was in power for four decades prior to Mr Wade’s victory in 2000, said some people had been allowed to vote more than once.
"These results do not reflect the feelings of the population which, in reality, expressed a massive rejection of Abdoulaye Wade’s authority," AFP news agency quoted leftist leader Mr Bathily as saying.
Voter turnout was high and long queues left some polling stations open late.
Events since Sunday have been somewhat chaotic, with a series of claims and counter-claims about the results.
Mr Wade, who is seeking a second term, has come under pressure in recent months over high rural unemployment.
Since his election he has fallen out with several of his allies, some of whom were among the opponents challenging him on the ballot papers.
Team-up
Mr Wade’s campaign manager has urged the president’s 14 opponents to concede defeat.
Voters queuing in Senegal
Observers say the voting was free and fair
But the other contenders say they will wait until official results are released before commenting, our reporter says.
A run-off would present an opportunity for Mr Wade’s opponents to team up against him.
That is exactly how the president came to power seven years ago in one of Africa’s rare peaceful transitions from one president to a rival.
It is the only West African nation not to have experienced a coup since independence, and polls in 2000 passed off peacefully.
Some five million people were eligible to vote, which is almost double the figure in the last election.
Senegal’s Wade wins re-election -government sources
February 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment
27 Feb 2007 18:53:16 GMT
Source: Reuters
DAKAR, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has won re-election with an unassailable lead according to results from almost all the West African country’s constituencies, government sources said on Tuesday. "With this score, a first round win is secured," said one of the sources, who asked not to be named. With 95 percent of votes counted, Wade had won 56.08 percent of valid votes, the sources told Reuters. Official results from Sunday’s poll were only due by the end of the week.
Senegal’s President Holds Sizable Lead
February 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment
By HEIDI VOGT
The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 27, 2007; 6:21 PM
DAKAR, Senegal — The president of this West African country appeared to have a strong lead in the election Tuesday, garnering more than half the votes counted.
President Abdoulaye Wade was leading 14 other contenders with 900,900 votes, or 55 percent of valid ballots counted. It was not clear how close officials were to completing the count of 2.3 million ballots cast.
Socialist Party candidate Tanor Dieng was Wade’s nearest competitor in the partial count, with about 16 percent. Idrissa Seck, who once served as Wade’s prime minister, was next with about 12 percent. Seck had been jailed by the government for seven months on embezzlement charges that were never proved.
To avoid a runoff, the top candidate needs to win more than 50 percent of the ballot.
Wade, 80, has presided over an era of peace rare in a tumultuous part of the continent, and the economy is stronger than in many other African nations. He has been embraced by many outsiders as a visionary for his role in setting up an peer-review panel for African economic policies and working to broker peace in neighboring countries.
Still, unemployment stands at about 50 percent and thousands of desperate youths have risked their lives trying to sneak illegally into Europe by sea. Wade also has been criticized neglecting rural areas, and has been unable to end a low-level insurgency in the Casamance region.
Regional observers said Sunday’s vote was largely "free and transparent" in most of the country, though military officials said rebels attacked some soldiers carrying ballot boxes in the still-restive southern region of Casamance Sunday night. One soldier died and two others were hurt, Army officer Boubacar Sane said.
The winner of Senegal’s election will serve five years, as the presidential term has been shortened since Wade’s 2000 victory.
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Associated Press writer Babacar Sarr Ba contributed to this report from Dakar.
