Senegal’s President Holds Sizable Lead
February 28, 2007
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.
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