Incumbent leads Senegal polls
February 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment
afrol News, 26 February - The Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade, is waiting to be declared the overall winner of the country’s presidential polls, held yesterday. Mr Wade, who has been challenged by 14 other candidates, is expected to have polled close to 60 percent of the votes in one of Africa’s democratic leaders, that is yet to taste coup d’état.
According to provisional results, the voter turn out was more than 70 percent, which was why some polling centres with long queues voted beyond the official closing hours, 18:00.
Mr Wade’s former Prime Minister, Idrissa Seck, is reported to rank second while the leader of the formerly ruling Parti Socialiste (PS), Ousmane Tanor Dieng, followed.
International election observers have already described the conduct of the polls as free, fair and transparent.
Macky Sall, the current Prime Minister and campaign manager of Mr Wade’s Coalition Sopi 2007, quickly convened a news conference at the party’s bureau in Dakar, announcing a first-round victory for their candidate. Mr Sall said going by the partial results, it was clear that Mr Wade swept the polls with 57 percent of the votes. Mr Sall said the results were irrefutable and as such the opposition should start bowing down.
Opposition leaders condemned Mr Sall’s pronouncement, arguing that it would be impossible to avoid a second round polls unless the results were defrauded. They found it hard to believe that the incumbent had polled more than the 50 percent necessary for an outright win.
Besides, officials of Autonomous National Electoral Commission (CENA) warned against any attempts to pre-empt the results. They argued that such an announcement would not help the climate of serenity.
Official provisional results were expected tonight and if no candidate polls 51 percent of the votes, then a second round run-off will take place in mid-March. In that event, Mr Wade’s challenger is given better chances by most observers.
There are fears of post electoral violence, as some opposition leaders have started questioning the relayed results.
Mr Wade’s camp however conceded defeat in few provinces. These include Thiès and Kerr Majabel, where Idrissa Seck and the candidate of Alliance of Progressive Forces (AFP), Moustapha Niasse, had beaten President Wade.
President Wade swept the polls in both Senegal and abroad. He polled over 75 percent of the foreign votes.
The Senegalese President dislodged PS from power in 2000 during the second round of voting. The PS had ruled the country since independence.
Mr Wade, who is seeking a second term, has come under pressure in recent months over high rural unemployment.
After voting in Point E in the capital Dakar, President Wade told journalists that nothing could stop him from sweeping the polls in the first round. "Door dorat," he said in Wollof, meaning "I will win and win again."
But the PS leader argued that Mr Wade was merely bluffing because he was at the brink of losing.
Though his critics accused his regime of its failure to arrest poverty through the creation of jobs, Mr Wade, an economic liberal and legal luminary, argued that he has boosted Senegal’s reputation as a model of democracy, political freedom and stability.
Senegal’s Wade Leads in Bid to Hold Presidency
February 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Morning Edition, February 26, 2007 · Millions of voters went to the polls in Senegal Sunday to pick a president, and early returns put incumbent Abdoulaye Wade in the lead. There were long lines at the polling stations.
"I am very optimistic, because there is a very big mobilization for the vote," Wade said after casting his own vote. Supporters of the president, who is now in his 80s, hardly allowed him to speak without erupting into cheers.
"I’m going to win, I’m going to win — and I’m going to win in the first round," Wade insisted.
Senegalese opposition challengers disagreed, saying that with 15 candidates in the race, no one could win the first round outright, and a runoff will have to follow.
Meanwhile, Senegalese voters are glued to their radios, listening to results from around the country and abroad.
They are eager to find out who will win, and what his priorities will be. In a turbulent region, prone to military coups and civil wars, Senegal has remained a relative oasis of stability in West Africa. And for voter Mary Diop, that’s the key.
"What I want for Senegal is peace, peace, peace," she said in French. "Peace is essential, because without peace you cannot build a country."
El Mamadou Mactar Thiam said he was voting for change, because he felt the president had not fulfilled his pledges to young people. And like many young voters, he talked about the harrowing images of thousands of young Senegalese, crammed into wooden fishing boats, leaving the country in search of jobs in Europe. Thousands are believed to have drowned in the Atlantic Ocean, making the dangerous 600-mile crossing on the open seas, trying to reach the Spanish Canary Islands.
"They have lost their hope, because this country is quite difficult," he said. "They want to help their parents, but they have no money. Moreover, they think if they go there, they will have money to help their parents. That’s why they take pirogue (boats) to go abroad. On the one hand, if they go there — if they don’t die on the way — it’s a good thing. But if they die, it’s bad."
Many Senegalese complain that when they voted for Wade in 2000 he promised progress and jobs. Now they point to crippling unemployment, continuing poverty, power cuts and water shortages.
Others say the president can’t control international economic forces. Mame Seye Soumare, 25, who voted for Wade, said you can’t blame the president because he doesn’t dictate market prices for oil and other commodities.
Wade hopes millions of voters share her perspective.
Senegal: Religious Leaders Call for Calm Ahead of Elections
February 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
February 26, 2007
Posted to the web February 26, 2007
Dakar
Catholic and Muslim leaders have appealed for calm and respect for the rules of democracy ahead of the country’s presidential elections scheduled for February 25.
Archbishop Théodore-Adrien Sarr, of Dakar, urged opposition parties to cancel a demonstration for which the authorities had refused permission.
The Archbishop’s intervention was decisive in convincing the opposition parties to cancel their unauthorised demonstration planned for February 2, local church sources told Fides news agency. "This helped to avoid a potential occasion for clashes between demonstrators and the police", it was reported.
Candidates were urged to help ensure a peaceful campaign, by Muslim leader El hadj Moustapha Cissé, coordinator of the Senegal Centre for Religious Intellectuals for Peace and Harmony CCRIPC.
Their calls came after a series of incidents provoked by supporters of certain presidential candidates, in which several people were injured.
Incumbent president Abdoulaye Wade, 80 is also seeking re-election.
Wade Probable Senegal Victor
February 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Luanda, Feb 26 (Prensa Latina)
Members of the Senegalese government proclaimed on Monday the re-election of President Abdoulaye Wade in the February 25 polls, according to radio stations in this capital.
Macky Sall, Prime Minister and chief of the presidential campaign, pointed out that Wade had received 57 percent of votes, winning the first round with almost five million ballots in his favor.
Sal said his victory was based on trends and information by representatives of the governing party located in polling stations.
Opposition said the head of government was dreaming, although it has not denounced irregularity or fraud so far.
According to reports received in Luanda, about 1,450 national and foreign observers participated in the Senegalese general elections, and praised voters behavior, discipline and civic sensibility.
Senegal: An Estimated 4,000,000 to Vote
February 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
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.
Senegalese vote for president in one of Africa’s most stable democracies
February 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
By Associated Press
Monday, February 26, 2007 - Updated: 08:31 AM EST
DAKAR, Senegal - The president of one of Africa’s most stable democracies sought another five-year term Sunday, jostling with 14 contenders in a race that may hinge on the votes of young people hungry for jobs.
Early results reported by state-run Senegalese Press Agency indicated President Abdoulaye Wade was in the lead but did not say by how much. It was not known how many votes had been counted, but they included polling stations in key cities including the capital Dakar and Thies, the agency said.
The first official results are not expected to be released by the electoral commission until Monday night, Election Commissioner Issa Sall told The Associated Press.
Wade has presided over an era of peace rare in a tumultuous part of the continent, and the economy - though struggling by Western standards - is stronger than in many African nations. Still, thousands of desperate youths have already voted with their feet, risking their lives to slip illegally into Europe by sea.
The median age in this country of 12 million is about 19 years, according to U.S. government statistics, compared with 36 in the United States. About half of Senegal’s work force is unemployed.
The 80-year-old Wade sounded confident as he cast his ballot in a dusty polling booth in this seaside capital.
”I will win, there is no question about it,” he said. ”It’s evident that the youth have voted for me.”
Among the top challengers are two of Wade’s former prime ministers: Moustapha Niasse, a former U.N. envoy, and Idrissa Seck, jailed by the government for seven months on embezzlement charges that were never proved.
To avoid a run-off, the top candidate needs to win more than 50 percent of the ballot. Though Wade is considered the favorite, the crowded field of challengers could splinter the vote and force a runoff.
When Wade’s black-tinted Hummer pulled up at the polling station, it was mobbed by supporters chanting ”gorgui” - a respectful Wolof word meaning ”old man.”
Each of the candidates appeared as a grainy photograph on 15 separate pieces of paper to ensure Senegal’s largely illiterate population can easily make their choice.
But some voters complained the supposedly indelible pink-colored ink, used to mark voters’ thumbs to ensure they did not cast multiple ballots, appeared to wash off with soap. To allay those concerns, Wade showed reporters that his thumb remained pink even after he rubbed it vigorously with a Kleenex.
For the Socialist Party’s Tanor Dieng, one of the candidates challenging Wade, the president’s reassurances were not good enough.
”All he can do is bluff, because he knows he’s losing,” Dieng said.
International election monitors said early evidence suggested the election was orderly and fair.
Wade, who spent three decades in the country’s opposition, won in a landslide in 2000, defeating the long-ruling Socialist party. He pledged to abolish the system of privilege that characterized the final years of the Socialist regime, and promised investments in education and job training.
Wade claims he has made good on his promises, and has presided over 5 percent annual growth.
But with 48 percent unemployment and the capital suffering cuts in electricity service - a situation unheard of several years ago - many say it’s not enough.
”It was the youth that brought him to power and for us it’s been a great disappointment,” said Moustapha Diagne, 48, a computer parts importer.
At least 31,000 Senegalese last year undertook the dangerous voyage in small boats by sea to try to reach Europe. Others journeyed north through the burning desert - and perished along the way.
Wade is also criticized by some for focusing on the problems of the capital and neglecting rural areas. He has not been able to end an insurgency in Senegal’s south.
Still, the president is widely credited with keeping Senegal relatively peaceful on a continent where many nations have suffered coups and wars.
In the grip of a malaise, Senegalese vote
February 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Socialist old guard challenges president
By Lydia Polgreen
Published: February 26, 2007
DAKAR, Senegal: Moudou Gueye had high hopes that the presidential election in Senegal would turn around his fortunes, at least in the short term.
Seven years ago he voted for Abdoulaye Wade, a rabble-rousing professor who after decades in opposition to the Socialist Party government sailed into office buoyed by the votes of frustrated young people like Gueye, who is 32. They hoped Wade, a free-market liberal, would transform this impoverished nation’s economy, which had been stunted by generations of poor central planning.
But seven years later, Gueye said, he does not feel much better off. He still does not have a regular job, and gets by selling coffee on the streets. On election day, he hoped to make about $15 selling his sugary brew at 10 cents a cup to early-morning voters on Sunday. When the morning coffee rush died down, he would cast his own vote, but not for Wade, the octogenarian incumbent.
"I had high hopes," said Gueye, his eyes hidden behind a pair of knock-off Ray Ban sunglasses. "But now we are all disappointed."
Voters in Senegal, an oasis of stability in a turbulent corner of the globe, went to the polls to elect a president on Sunday, to choose whether to re-elect Wade or a new president from 14 other candidates, many drawn from the same old Socialist Party that voters roundly rejected in 2000.
If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, the election will go to a runoff between the top two candidates that is expected to be held in mid-March. The winner will serve a five-year term.
In the more than four decades since it won its independence from France, Senegal has never had a coup d’état, and it suffers from almost none of the ethnic strife that has dragged many countries in West Africa into civil war. One of Africa’s oldest and most open democracies, its genteel politics have been the envy of many of its neighbors.
But this election has been different. The campaign was marred by accusations that the government was trying to stifle opposition. One opposition rally was barred from taking place, though others were allowed to go ahead.
A brawl last week between supporters of a religious leader loyal to Wade and the supporters of a former Wade ally who is running for president, Idrissa Seck, left six people seriously wounded and several cars burned. Such violence is mild by regional standards but almost unheard of in Senegal.
The unrest reflects a wide unease with the country’s fortunes. Despite a relatively robust economic growth that has hovered at around 5 percent over several years, compared with the 1 percent achieved during much of the socialist era, and dozens of huge public works projects, Wade has struggled to convince voters, particularly the young people who make up more than half of the population, that he deserves another term.
"In many ways it is a choice between people they can’t stand and the person who disappointed them," said a senior Western diplomat, speaking on the condition that he not be identified. "It’s a sad choice."
While in some ways the country is better off, macroeconomic growth and a building binge have not produced large numbers of jobs in a country struggling to make the transition from an agrarian society, based largely on peanut farming, to one that harnesses the wealth of a global economy.
There is no better indication of Senegal’s economic desperation than the exodus of young people to Europe. At least 36,000 Africans, mostly young men from Senegal, headed for the Canary Islands as illegal migrants by sea last year, according to the Spanish government. At least 6,000 of those did not survive, yet thousands more wait for the next crossing season to begin, paying $1,000 or more for a place in a boat.
Wade staked his legacy on a series of building projects, what he called his Grands Travaux, part of a plan to stimulate the country’s economy. Some of the projects are under way, like a new seaside highway that hugs Dakar’s rugged coastline, along with a series of oceanfront luxury hotels. Others, like a plan to build a new capital and a second airport, are still on the drawing board.
J. Habib Sy, a political analyst and head of a nonprofit organization, Aid Transparency, that investigates public spending, said his examinations of government projects had shown widespread waste and mismanagement.
"People were hopeful, myself included, that as an old man he would be wise," Sy said. "But it didn’t happen that way."
Wade’s supporters say that he has delivered for Senegal and deserves more time to complete his vision for the country’s future.
"This government has done more in seven years than the socialists did in 40 years," said Boubacar Kanté, a 33-year- old electrician, standing in line at a school in the Grand Dakar slum, waiting to cast his vote. "I found a job after Wade was elected, and life is better."
Countering claims by critics that he is too old to serve another term — his official age is given as 80, but many people suspect he is older — Wade’s daughter, Sindiély Wade, who has worked as a special assistant to the president, said that he was as sharp and agile as ever.
"It is not a question of age," Sindiély Wade said as she waited to cast her vote in Dakar’s city center. "It is a question of dynamism and ideas and what you have planned for your country."
Along Dakar’s seaside corniche, young men marveled at the cars whizzing below a new overpass, one of the president’s public-works projects.
Pap Ndiaye, an 18-year-old street hawker who sells baby clothes to people in cars stalled in traffic, said the newly completed road was a sign that the country was moving in the right direction.
"Wade has done a lot for this country," Ndiaye said. "Our hope is that he will stay and finish his work."
Less than a mile away the road abruptly ends with a bright yellow sign that says "deviation." With a hard turn to the right, drivers pour off the broad new highway, and back into the tangled, chaotic streets of one of Dakar’s oldest and poorest neighborhoods.
Wade camp predicts victory as Senegal counts votes
February 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
26 Feb 2007 11:58:04 GMT
By Diadie Ba
DAKAR, Feb 26 (Reuters) - President Abdoulaye Wade’s camp said he was headed for a first-round win on Monday in Senegal’s high-turnout election, but poll authorities warned against calling the result too soon.
Wade’s prediction that he would win with more than half the vote, which his 14 challengers said would be impossible to achieve without fraud, has raised fears of unrest in one of the few African states not to have had a coup since independence.
Prime Minister Macky Sall, Wade’s campaign manager, said partial figures compiled from its representatives at polling stations showed record turnout of 70 percent with a strong lead of around 57 percent for the octogenarian Wade.
"These results (show) irrefutably that the candidate Abdoulaye Wade is well clear of the 50 percent needed to be elected in the first round," Sall said in the early hours of Monday as supporters played music and danced outside Wade’s Democratic Party’s headquarters.
Official provisional results were expected later on Monday. If no candidate wins a majority, a second-round run-off is scheduled for mid-March.
"These are not official results and do not contribute to a climate of serenity," a spokesman for the Autonomous National Electoral Commission (CENA) said late on Sunday after Wade’s supporters said the president was headed for a first-round win.
Wade swept to power in 2000, ending four decades of Socialist Party rule in what was at the time one of Africa’s first transfers from one elected government to another, boosting the West African country’s credentials as a peaceful democracy.
Backers of Socialist Party candidate Ousmane Tanor Dieng, who had said they had "credible information … of a planned strategy of fraud", dismissed Wade’s early victory claims as "fantasy".
An economic liberal, Wade has campaigned on ambitious job-creation projects to build highways, five-star hotels, railways and airports to stem an exodus of desperate young migrants leaving for Europe.
Opponents criticise him for failing to tackle rural poverty, weak infrastructure, rising prices and a lack of jobs in a country where more than half the 12 million population is under 18 and most people live by farming and fishing.
Apart from a long-running low-level insurgency by separatists in the southern province of Casamance, political violence is rare in Senegal.
But tensions have spilled over into isolated clashes during the campaign, stoking fears of further trouble should the opposition reject the results.
Senegal at the brink
February 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
By AP
DAKAR, Senegal — The president of one of Africa’s most stable democracies sought another five-year term yesterday, jostling with 14 contenders in a race that may hinge on the votes of young people hungry for jobs.
President Abdoulaye Wade has presided over an era of peace rare in a tumultuous part of the continent, and the economy, though struggling by western standards, is stronger than in many African countries. Still, thousands of desperate youth have already voted with their feet, risking their lives to slip illegally into Europe by sea.
The median age in this country of 12 million is about 19 years, according to U.S. government statistics, compared with over 36 years in the United States. About half of Senegal’s workforce is unemployed.
Wade, 80, sounded confident as he cast his ballot in a dusty polling booth in this seaside capital. "I will win, there is no question about it," he said. "It’s evident that the youth have voted for me."
Among the top challengers are two of Wade’s former prime ministers: Moustapha Niasse, a former UN envoy, and Idrissa Seck, 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% of the ballot. Though Wade is considered the favourite, the crowded field of challengers could splinter the vote and force a runoff.
When Wade’s black-tinted Hummer pulled up at the polling station, it was mobbed by supporters chanting "gorgui," a respectful Wolof word meaning "old man."
Each of the candidates appeared as a grainy photograph on 15 separate pieces of paper.
Wade takes early lead in Senegal poll
February 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
By Diadie Ba
Reuters
Sunday, February 25, 2007; 5:44 PM
DAKAR (Reuters) - President Abdoulaye Wade took an early lead over rivals in Senegal’s election on Sunday, the official news agency reported, citing initial returns from a poll which saw a high turnout across the West African country.
Wade has predicted he will win outright in the first round, garnering more than 50 percent of the vote. But his 14 challengers have said this would be impossible to achieve without fraud and that they would challenge any such result.
This has raised fears of possible unrest in one of the rare West African countries not to have experienced a coup or civil war after it gained independence from France in 1960.
The state-run Senegalese Press Agency (APS) said early, partial results posted at polling stations in Dakar and several other cities and towns such as Thies, Matam, Fatick and Podor gave the octogenarian president the initial advantage.
But official results are not expected until Monday and it was not clear whether Wade was on track for outright victory. If needed, a second-round run-off would be held in mid-March.
Wade, flagbearer of the ruling Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), was leading rivals Ousmane Tanor Dieng of the Socialist Party and Idrissa Seck, a former ally and prime minister of Wade who is now running against him, APS said.
In a statement, Dieng’s campaign said it had "credible information … of a planned strategy of fraud."
"I’m asking those who vote … to be vigilant until polling stations close, to avoid fraud," Dieng told reporters.
HIGH TURNOUT
Long queues had formed outside Senegal’s polling stations on Sunday and voting hours were extended as a high turnout of Senegal’s five million voters flocked to the polls.
Wade, in his 80s, has ruled since 2000.
From the dusty towns of north Senegal, on the fringes of the Sahara, to forest-hemmed villages in south Casamance region, where separatists fight a low-intensity war, voters turned out to cast their ballots in schools and public buildings.
In the capital Dakar, long lines of voters, many dressed in colorful robes, waited patiently in the sun or in the shade of the thick-trunked baobab trees that dot Senegal’s landscape.
"I’m very optimistic and I think I’m going to win in the first round," Wade said, casting his ballot in a Dakar suburb.
The controversy clearly worried voters too in this predominantly Muslim country of nearly 12 million people, who live mostly from farming and fishing.
"Those who are in power have done everything possible to stay there, even if an important majority want them to go," said Amadou Ndiaye, 57, a goods handler, as he voted.
Wade’s election in 2000 ended four decades of socialist rule. An economic liberal, he argues he has boosted Senegal’s reputation as a stable democracy in a troubled region.
His campaign has included ambitious job-creation projects to build highways, five-star hotels, railways and airports in a bid to try to stop an exodus of desperate young migrants who have tried to leave for Europe in recent years.
Campaigning has largely been peaceful.
Wade’s opponents criticize him for failing to tackle rural poverty, weak infrastructure, rising prices and a lack of jobs in a country where more than half the population is under 18.
(Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher)
