Senegal’s opposition to boycott election
April 7, 2007
Senegal’s main opposition parties announced Friday they would
boycott June’s legislative elections over the president’s refusal to
change the electoral process.
They said they had begun
withdrawing their 15-million CFA franc (23,000-euro) deposits for the
polls, which will render their candidates ineligible to stand, ahead of
the midnight deadline for applications.
"We are going to gather
the final documents that we need to withdraw our deposits in the next
few hours," said Yero De, the spokesman for the opposition coalition
comprising the Socialist Party, LD/MPT and Rewmi parties.
"We
cannot participate in the election without holding talks with the
president (Abdoulaye Wade) on the electoral process," he told AFP.
Abdel
Kader Sabara, a delegate of the Alliances of Forces for Progress,
another opposition coalition, said: "I am in the process of completing
the process to withdraw my deposit."
On Monday, 12 opposition
leaders threatened to boycott the June 3 elections if Wade refused
their calls to revise the voter list and create an independent
structure to replace the government-appointed electoral commission.
The president, who was sworn in to a second term on Tuesday, refused to meet them but said they were free to boycott the polls.
Among
those taking part in the boycott are Idrissa Seck, Ousmane Tanor Dieng
and Moustapha Niasse, who came second, third and fourth respectively in
February’s presidential elections which Wade won with 55.9 percent of
the vote.
Only two small opposition parties — the Jef-Jel
alliance and the African Party for Democracy and Socialism (AJ/PADS) –
have said they will take part in the legislative elections.
There
was no official response to the boycott on Friday but commentators
expressed concern at the effect on democracy in Senegal, the only west
African country never to have experienced a coup d’etat.
"We are
going to ask the parties to go back on their decision. For the sake of
democracy, they must give dialogue a chance," Alioune Tine, executive
secretary of Dakar-based human rights group RADDHO, told AFP.
"The
opposition do not have the right to deprive voters of their
representation in the assembly. For his part, Wade must do everything
to ensure they are present to avoid a catastrophic regression in a
country viewed as a democratic leader in Africa."
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