Court rejects Senegal election fraud appeal
March 14, 2007
afrol News, 12 March - Senegal’s
highest judicial authority, the Constitutional Court, yesterday
rejected an appeal filed by some opposition leaders to annul the
results of the 25 February presidential polls. The court consequently
confirmed the re-election of President Abdoulaye Wade, who polled 55.9
percent of the valid ballots.
A panel of constitutional judges, who
disclosed their verdict to the media, ruled out any "cheating or
irregularity" in the conduct of the polls, arguing that the opposition
petitions "lacked grounds."
At the polls, Mr Wade was followed by his former Prime Minister,
Idrissa Secka, who scored 15 percent of the votes. Mr Seck had been
quiet since the results were first declared.
But he convened a news conference today to finally concede defeat as
well as congratulate President Wade on his victory. The former Prime
Minister was not among the opposition that questioned fairness of the
results.
Mr Wade, who had earlier announced to settle scores with some
opposition leaders, accusing them of harming the state through official
corruption, said he does not care about Mr Seck’s congratulatory
message. Mr Wade wondered why Mr Seck would wait until last minute to
congratulate him.
President Wade accused Mr Seck of stealing over franc CFA 40 billion
(euro 60 million) from the state coffers and to have deposited them in
foreign banks accounts.
President Wade said he had forgiven all those who harmed him personally
but that he would not forgive those who harmed the country. He said he
was waiting for the elections to pass so that the state resumes its
normal life.
The leaders of Socialist Party (PS) and Democratic League/Movement for
the Labour Party (LD/MLP) - Ousmane Tanor Dieng and Abdoulaye Bathily -
had filed the appeal against the provisional results, insisting that
the voting process was marred by irregularities, although international
observers had not questioned the outcome of the polls.
While Mr Dieng ranked third position with 13.57 percent, Mr Bathily sat
on the sixth position with only 2.21 percent of the votes.
The PS spokesperson, Aissata Tall-Sall, said she was disappointed with
the court’s decision because "our arguments were absolutely
indisputable because the results from 31 of the 35 regional districts
failed to tally, for they were contained in ballot boxes without stamps
of the Autonomous National Electoral Commission."
She said her party leadership had expected the nullification of the results and not the other way round.
By staff writer
© afrol News
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