Senegal opposition confirms will boycott June polls
April 7, 2007
By Diadie Ba
DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegal’s main opposition parties confirmed on
Friday they would boycott parliamentary elections set for June,
withdrawing their candidacy deposits hours away from the deadline for
submissions, a spokesman said.
A group of 12 opposition parties said on Monday they would boycott
the June 3 elections, accusing the government of buying votes and
doctoring the electoral roll in President Abdoulaye Wade’s re-election
in February.
"I have been mandated by the 12 opposition parties to withdraw the
deposits for the legislative elections from the public treasury. Now it
is a done deal, we will not take part in the elections," their
representative, Aly Haidar, told Reuters.
Monday’s announcement dented Senegal’s reputation for democracy and
embarrassed Wade hours ahead of his inauguration on Tuesday for a
second term in office at a lavish ceremony attended by almost 20 heads
of state from across Africa.
Wade easily won the February 25 presidential poll with 55.9 percent
of votes, but opposition parties accused him of doctoring voter lists
and buying votes.
Opposition parties had demanded the dismissal of Interior Minister
Ousmane Ngom and the redrawing of electoral boundaries before elections
take place, saying the current allocation of constituencies heavily
favoured Wade’s ruling Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS). Wade rejected
both of these demands.
"I must point out that it is President Wade who has broken off all
dialogue with the opposition in refusing an audit of the electoral
list. Therefore more than 40 percent of the electorate will not be
taking part in the elections," Haidar said.
The parties of most of the 14 rival candidates who challenged Wade
in the February poll are in the group boycotting the legislative
elections.
They include the Rewmi party of second-placed Idrissa Seck, Wade’s
estranged former premier and the Socialist Party, which led the former
French colony for four decades before being swept from power by Wade’s
election in 2000.
That election — one of Africa’s first peaceful transfers of power
from one elected government to another — enhanced Senegal’s reputation
for stability and democracy in a volatile continent.
Originally scheduled for February 2006, the legislative elections
were postponed by a year after Wade said the money for organising them
was needed to cope with widespread flooding after the heaviest rains in
decades in late 2005.
The polls were postponed again in February after the opposition protested against the map of electoral boundaries.
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved. |
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