Senegal: An Estimated 4,000,000 to Vote

February 26, 2007

The Gambia Echo (Raleigh)
February 25, 2007
Posted to the web February 26, 2007

Alpha Jallow
Zinquinchor

Voting has been peaceful in Senegal ’s multiparty elections. Over twelve thousands polling stations were opened country -wide to enable about four million registered voters to cast their ballots.

Although several thousands electorates have not participated in Sunday’s polls, because they have not received their voters cards. As voting progressed in the morning, most of the Electoral Commissions across the country were inundated with people making a last minute attempt to get their voters cards.
Oracle Content & Collaboration

"I believed the delay in issuing voters cards to potential voters is a ploy by the ruling party to rig the elections" one angry voter told me in Ziguinchor.

Long queues were seen in most polling stations as early as 7.00am on Sunday, but actual voting didn’t start until around 10.00am because of a delay in the arrival of voter materials in many polling stations across the country.

However, some of the malpractices noticed during polling day was the absence of ballot papers of some the contesting candidates.

In Kedougou in the east, ballot papers belonging to the leader of the coalition"Diobanti Senegal" of Professor Abdoulie Bathilly were not found in most polling stations.

In the troubled region of Casamance large communities have not voted at all due to an incursion between the Senegalese army and rebel of the Movement for the Democratic Forces of the Casamance (MFDC).On Saturday night, members of the Senegalese army were attacked by gun men believed to be rebels fighting for a faction that opposed the peace process signed in Ziguinchor in December 2004. The Senegalese army were attacked as they were transporting voting materials to polling stations located in the District of Sindian and Belaye in the north of Casamance.

‘I think we are not part of the country. If we cannot be allowed to participate in the democratic process of our country, then we should not call ourselves Senegalese’, one traumatised man from Belaye told me.

As I filed this report, counting has not yet started due to the large number of people that are still queuing in many polling stations.

Share and Enjoy: