Senegal to vote in polls likely to dent its democratic credentials
June 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Senegal holds parliamentary elections on Sunday amid an opposition poll boycott that threatens to tarnish the country’s long-held democratic credentials.
The boycott, the first in the former French colony which for years has enjoyed the reputation of west Africa’s model democracy, comes three months after President Abdoulaye Wade was re-elected in elections disputed by the opposition as having been marred by fraud and irregularities.
The refusal of 17 parties to participate in the election will hand an easy victory to a pro-Wade coalition which brings together the ruling Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) and its allies.
However, a low turnout could pose a problem of legitimacy for Wade and the government.
A majority of the opposition heavyweights, including the former prime minister Idrissa Seck and Ousmane Tanor Dieng, of the former ruling Socialist Party, who came second and third respectively in the February presidential polls, are staying away from the polls.
Another former prime minister, Moustapha Niasse, who took the fourth position in the vote which saw Wade re-elected with 56 percent early in the year, is also snubbing the June 3 poll.
The opposition decided to boycott the election after Wade refused to review the electoral process.
Opposition leaders had wanted the voter lists to be revised and the creation of an independent structure to replace the government-appointed electoral commission, to ensure poll transparency.
Civil society organisations and foreign diplomats have tried in vain to get the opposition and government to talk, as Wade refused to open up a dialogue.
Senegal has long been regarded a democratic exception in west Africa, given its regular organisation of pluralistic elections and freedom of expression. It so far remains the only country in the region to have never experienced a coup since independence in 1960.
Only small opposition forces have joined Wade’s coalition in the race for 150 national assembly seats.
Observers warn that voter turnout is key for Wade to safeguard his authority.
"The main issue of the legislative elections is the voter turnout rate," said Babacar Gueye, leader of a collective of 11 civil society groupings.
"If this turnout is significant, rulers will be able snub the opposition. If it is weak, the opposition could be regarded as winners of the arm-wrestling," he said.
And if turnout is low, "Wade could try to widen his power base, by wooing opposition parties to power so as not to have a legitimacy problem," he predicted.
Senegal’s parliamentary elections have been deferred twice already, first from last year so as to run concurrently with the presidential ballot, and then again early this year after electoral authorities upheld a charge of irregularities stemming from the allocation of seats in some constituencies.
More than 4,000 candidates will vie for 150 seats for a new and enlarged national assembly. The last lower house had 120 seats, but a new law allowed it to be expanded by 30 more.
Wade’s PDS already enjoyed a comfortable majority with 90 of the 120 deputies in the outgoing parliament.
New Senegal radio shut down before being launched
June 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment
afrol News, 31 May - The government of Senegal on Thursday deployed a large contingent of armed soldiers to shut off the set up privately-owned radio station in the capital Dakar on Thursday.
Transmitting on 92.3, ‘Premier FM’ is owned by a prominent Senegalese journalist, Madiambal Diagne. Mr Diagne is also the publisher of two daily papers – Le Quotidien and Cocorico – and a weekly magazine. Cocorico, a satirical paper, hits the newspaper market this month.
His radio that started test signals on Tuesday has been waiting to be launched when its proprietor was asked to vanish from the air. Prior to the closure, four truckloads of armed soldiers stormed the premises of Avenir Communications, the company that administers Mr Diagne’s media business.
Gun-wielding soldiers could be calmly seen inside their vehicles while their commander and officials of the national telecommunications and stations regulatory authority were busy confronting Mr Digane.
“Mr Diagne was asked to remove the station from the air but he refused asking them to do it themselves,” said a staff of ‘Le Quotidien.’
After a hasty discussion, the officers went away with the station’s apparatus, leaving it off air.
Before the radio hits the airwaves, Mr Diagne commented on the development, recounting the official rough track the company had trekked on to get a radio frequency from the government. He said the radio project had been a long term dream of his company because it had first requested for a frequency from the Information Minister in November 2003.
Diagne said the request was flatly denied for no just cause. But the company kept on the throat of the government so that they could at least issue allow the radio to cover only Dakar and its environment. This too fell on deaf ears, for they were told that the Dakar frequency is saturated.
“We then asked for a frequency to emit in the areas while waiting for that the problem in Dakar to be regulated,” Mr. Diagne said, adding, “this too has been unsuccessful.” Mr Diagne would not understand why others have been issued frequencies, despite denying him the right.
The company did not fold its hands and said enough is enough as in the case of so many people. With the belief that radio is a power tool to better inform, educate and entertain a society, especially at a time the country is going through elections, Avenir Communications then sought possible alternatives. This led to the buying of a local company with a frequency.
But this too is without official complaints that the transmitter is very close to the airport track. It is not clear whether Senegalese authorities will allow the radio to resume operations.
The new radio is being administered by a doyen broadcaster - Michel Diouf – a pioneer founder member of ‘Sud FM’ and Manager of ‘Radio Television Senegalaise’ (RTS).
Mr Diouf’s main ambition is to turn the new radio into a credible voice of truth by relaying factual and well researched human interest stories to audience of Premier FM.
“We want to merge our ambition with out name. We want to be one of the leaders of broadcasting in the country,” he said.
Some months back, Diagne reportedly snubbed an audience with President Abdoulaye Wade.
On 9 July 2004, Madiambal Diagne, also a law expert, was arrested and detained for over 20 days without trial. He was later charged with publishing confidential reports and correspondence, false information and news "which could cause serious political problems."
His arrest and detention spurred the Senegalese privately-owned media to stage a day’s news blackout in protest against what they called “the political arrest of our colleague.”
The media guru’s case had concerned the international media bodies, including the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) that petitioned the Senegalese Prime Minister, Macky Sall, reminding him that the “jailing of Mr Diagne for his journalistic activities constitutes a clear breach of his right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international agreements, including Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Furthermore, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights considers that "detention, as punishment for the peaceful expression of an opinion, is one of the most reprehensible ways to enjoin silence and, as a consequence, a grave violation of human rights".
WAN urged Senegal to immediately release Mr Diagne from jail and drop all criminal charges against him. “We urge you to do everything possible to ensure that in future your country fully respects international standards of freedom of expression.”
Senegal, one of Africa’s biggest democracies, is becoming intolerant to free expreesion and speech.
While on official trip to Mauritania, President Wade was asked why his government had deviated from his promise that his government would never send a journalist in prison. His reply was thus: "Senegalese journalists don’t respect the law."
The Wade government has increased the annual subvention to the press as well as started building a magnificient press house for journalists.
By staff writer
© afrol News
Opposition boycott of polls takes gloss off Senegal’s image
June 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment
June 01, 2007 Edition 1
Dakar - "The Old Man is strong!" is a favourite chant of supporters of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, whose rule over the West African state looks set to become stronger still in parliamentary polls.
An opposition boycott of the polls will leave the field clear for a sweeping victory by the octogenarian president’s Sopi coalition, whose name means "change".
But the one-sided polls, coming three months after Wade won a surprisingly easy re-election in a presidential ballot rejected as flawed by opponents, threaten to take the gloss off Senegal’s carefully nurtured image as a model working democracy.
A dozen opposition groups, led by Senegal’s Socialist Party (PS), announced in April that they would boycott Sunday’s ballot, accusing Wade’s Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) of buying votes and doctoring the electoral roll in February’s poll.
While the critics have failed to provide proof of widespread fraud, they say Wade used state funds and the PDS party machine to steamroller his way to 56% of the votes.
This has left the ageing but feisty president, who has bluntly refused to discuss the electoral issues with opponents, looking more like one of Africa’s traditional "Big Men" rulers than the world-class democratic statesman he aspires to be.
"It is like a struggle between a heavyweight against a lightweight," Alioune Tine, of the Dakar-based African human rights group Raddho, said of Sunday’s lopsided elections.
Wade’s Sopi coalition already controlled 89 seats in the previous 120-member parliament and seem certain to extend this in the new assembly, expanded earlier this year to 150 seats.
Many see the opposition boycott as a pointless political suicide that will remove any check to Wade, who has already been criticised for harassing political foes and media critics with temporary detentions.
"People used to say that other countries should follow the democratic example of Senegal, but now everybody is saying avoid the Senegalese example," Tine said.
Nevertheless, Senegal remains a beacon of peace and stability in an otherwise troubled region. The former French colony, most of whose inhabitants live through farming and fishing, has never had a coup since independence in 1960.
But Wade, whose first election in 2000 ended four decades of Socialist rule and who is well regarded by foreign investors, has faced criticism for not doing enough to end poverty, unemployment and frustration among young Senegalese.
Thousands have risked their lives trying to reach Spain in rickety open boats in a bid to start a new life in Europe.
Since the opposition boycott makes victory for Wade’s coalition a foregone conclusion on Sunday, campaigning for the vote has been lacklustre, with little popular enthusiasm.
"They (the opposition) should have taken part in the elections to be in the parliament and raise their voice there. But now they will be just like any normal citizens, which is not very productive," said Dakar University student Sidiya Diop.
But opposition leaders are hoping that high voter abstention will dent Wade’s democratic credentials at home and abroad.
"Senegalese should take the opportunity to show Wade they reject his economic policy and his refusal to hold a dialogue," said Ousmane Tanor Dieng, the Socialist Party chief, who came third in February’s presidential election. - Reuters
Senegal Private Radio Launch Halted by Gendarmes
June 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment
There was supposed to be something of a celebration: the launch of Dakar radio station Premiere FM. Gendarmes appeared and authorities asked owner Madiambal Diagne to shut down signal tests already in progress.
follow-up to: African Broadcasters Reorganize - August 21, 2006
The Administrative Council of the Union of National Radio and Television Organizations of Africa (URTNA) agreed to proceed with the organizations restructure, complete with a new name, after meeting in Dakar, Senegal.
He refused and, reportedly, told telecom authorities to do it themselves. They did, with security agents hauling away enough equipment to render the station off the air.
“He sounded exhausted and shell-shocked after spending all night giving interviews,” said
Patrice Schneider of Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF) in an email to ftm today (Friday, June 1). MDLF has a relationship with Mr. Diagne’s media company, Avenir Communications.
Mr. Diagne, publisher of two independent newspapers, spent time in jail in 2004 after upsetting authorities with critical coverage. Premiere FM is licensed as a news and information radio station. Schneider said authorities apparently pressured at least one supplier to not provide broadcast equipment.
The station is banned from broadcasting for 45 days, according to reports by VOA and Senegalese newspaper Wal Fadjri.
Just by coincidence, legislative elections are being held Sunday, June 3.- June 3, 2007
Opposition in Senegal Boycotts Vote
June 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment
By LYDIA POLGREEN
Published: June 4, 2007
DAKAR, Senegal, June 3 — Voters in Senegal on Sunday largely stayed home from an election to choose a new national assembly amid widespread apathy and after a call for a boycott by the main opposition parties.
In calling for a boycott, opposition leaders said President Abdoulaye Wade refused to meet with them to discuss irregularities in the voter rolls and the process of requiring identification from voters in February, when he was re-elected. The opposition parties did not offer candidates for the 150-seat assembly. Mr. Wade, who will serve a five-year-term after easily winning the election against a fractured opposition, has dismissed the complaints as irrelevant to the overall outcome of the race.
But the prospect of a legislature virtually devoid of opposition is sure to tarnish Senegal’s cherished reputation as a strong and long-standing democracy in a region where governments have historically changed in putsches and rigged elections rather than in open, multiparty voting.
Final results in the election were not expected until Monday.
Senegal has never had a coup, and in 2000 it became one of the very few African countries to pass power from one party to another peacefully in an election. Mr. Wade, a longtime opposition figure, won largely because of his pledges to shake up the sleepy economy with changes that would put legions of unemployed youths to work.
He defeated the incumbent from the Socialist Party, which had governed the country since independence in 1960. The Constitution was recently changed to reduce the president’s term from seven years to five. But many of the young people who supported Mr. Wade in 2000 were disillusioned by 2007, when he ran for re-election despite being in his 80s.
A long-promised program of public works began in earnest only once the election drew near, and Senegal’s economic growth has been dampened by high fuel prices and other factors. Unemployment remains rife, and each year the number of young people fleeing to Europe on fishing boats grows exponentially. Basic services like water, electricity and trash collection have faltered.
Since his re-election, Mr. Wade has pledged to redouble his efforts to improve the economy and to increase the number of jobs.
More Articles in International »
Lopsided Senegal election heralds pro-Wade walkover
May 31, 2007 | Leave a Comment
By Diadie Ba
Reuters
Thursday, May 31, 2007; 9:40 AM
DAKAR (Reuters) - "The Old Man is strong!" is a favorite chant of supporters of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, whose rule over the West African state looks set to become stronger still in parliamentary polls on Sunday.
An opposition boycott of the polls will leave the field clear for a sweeping victory by the octogenarian president’s Sopi coalition, whose name means "change."
But the one-sided polls, coming three months after Wade won a surprisingly easy re-election in a presidential ballot rejected as flawed by opponents, threaten to take the gloss off Senegal’s carefully nurtured image as a model working democracy.
A dozen opposition groups led by Senegal’s Socialist Party (PS) announced last month they would boycott Sunday’s ballot, accusing Wade’s Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) of buying votes and doctoring the electoral roll in February’s poll.
While the critics have failed to provide proof of widespread fraud, they say Wade used state funds and the PDS party machine to steamroller his way to victory with 56 percent of the votes.
This has left the ageing but feisty president, who has bluntly refused to discuss the electoral issues with opponents, looking more like one of Africa traditional "Big Men" rulers than the world-class democratic statesman he aspires to be.
"It is like a struggle between a heavyweight against a lightweight," Alioune Tine of the Dakar-based African human rights group RADDHO said of Sunday’s lopsided elections.
Wade’s Sopi coalition already controlled 89 seats in the previous 120-member parliament and seem certain to extend this in the new assembly, expanded earlier this year to 150 seats.
Many see the opposition boycott as a pointless political suicide which will remove any check to Wade, who has already been criticized for harassing political foes and media critics with temporary detentions.
"People used to say that other countries should follow the democratic example of Senegal but now everybody is saying avoid the Senegalese example," Tine said.
NOT TACKLING POVERTY
Nevertheless, Senegal remains a beacon of peace and stability in an otherwise troubled region. The former French colony, most of whose inhabitants live through farming and fishing, has never had a coup since independence in 1960.
But Wade, whose first election in 2000 ended four decades of Socialist rule and who is well regarded by foreign investors, has faced criticism for not doing enough to end poverty, unemployment and frustration among young Senegalese.
Thousands have risked their lives trying to reach Spain in rickety open boats in a bid to start a new life in Europe.
Since the opposition boycott makes victory for Wade’s coalition a foregone conclusion on Sunday, campaigning for the vote has been lackluster, with little popular enthusiasm.
"They (the opposition) should have taken part in the elections, to be in the parliament and raise their voice there. But now they will be just like any normal citizens which is not very productive," said Dakar University student Sidiya Diop.
But opposition leaders are hoping high voter abstention will dent Wade’s democratic credentials at home and abroad.
"Senegalese should take the opportunity to show to Wade they reject his economic policy and his refusal to hold a dialogue," said Ousmane Tanor Dieng, the Socialist Party chief who came third in February’s presidential election.
Facing 13 insignificant parties in Sunday’s poll, Wadi’s Sopi coalition says it is confident in can obtain a good turnout at the polls, which were originally due in June 2006 but have been twice delayed.
Senegalese Opposition Enters Final Days of Election Boycott
May 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Dakar 29 May 2007 |
In The opposition coalition called "Front for the Restoration of Despite the opposition’s efforts to delay the vote, through a court One of the coalition’s leaders, Moustapha Fall, says his group’s campaign to keep voters away from the polls is working. He says the fact that only one-third of the military voted, this About 80 percent of the military and security forces voted in the presidential election. But election observers and members of the president’s coalition say Senegalese writer Mody Niang, who has written critical books about The Niang says the boycott has actually worked in President Wade’s For the past eight years, Paul Ndong has been the mayor of Joal-Fadiouth, a fishing village 100 kilometers from the capital. He says he was born into the Socialist Party and has been a committed Socialist his entire life until two months ago. He went through what he calls a personal political upheaval and Ndong says he was not personally informed about the boycott. He says The mayor says the opposition could have won many of the 150 elected positions. But the long-Socialist mayor says he is now faithful to the president’s coalition. In the streets of the capital, this taxi driver says he does not He says taxi drivers tend to like how the president is trying to fix Dakar’s congested roads.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade greets crowd at the Independence Day parade (File)
Senegal, more than a dozen opposition political groups enter the final
days of their boycott against this coming Sunday’s legislative
election. They point to this past weekend’s low turnout for the
military as proof the boycott is working. But some say the boycott is a
losing battle and are deserting the opposition to join the ruling
party. Phuong Tran has more from Dakar.
Senegal" continues its call for a nationwide legislative election
boycott because of what its leaders call widespread fraud during the
presidential election, earlier this year, when President Wade won
almost 56 percent of the vote.
ruling, the already-twice-delayed legislative election is scheduled to
take place this Sunday.
past weekend, shows how voters agree with the boycott. He says the
higher military turnout for the presidential election shows the boycott
has had an effect.
legislative elections typically attract less attention than
presidential ones and that the military and security forces are voting
separately for the first time and cannot be used as a gauge for the
nationwide vote.
the president that he says are banned in Senegal, says the president’s
coalition is trying to prove it has voters’ support, despite the
boycott.
Observers say election was fair
writer says President Wade has been fighting a possible drop in voter
turnout by going to the countryside and treating villagers to
extravagant feasts of chicken, sheep and beef. He says the ruling party
plans to bus voters to the polls.
favor, in one way: opposition members who do not want to wait five
years until the next election to have a voice in the government are
joining the president’s coalition.
joined the president’s ruling coalition, the Democratic Party of
Senegal.
he learned about it from watching the news and does not understand why
the opposition is boycotting and that he does not agree.
know about the boycott. He says he plans to drive his taxi 200
kilometers to his home village, in the northern Louga Province, to vote
for President Wade’s party.
E-mail This Article
Print Version
Another blow for Senegal opposition
May 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment
afrol News, 24 May - It
was yet another striking blow for the Senegalese opposition yesterday
when the Council of State legalised the distribution of lawmakers in
the country, a move vehemently challenged by the opposition Parti
Socialiste (PS).
Until it was dislodged
from power by President Abdoulaye Wade’s ruling PDS in 2000, PS had
been ruling Senegal since independence in 1960. The party captured
third in the last Presidential polls.
Unsatisfied with the overruling of a decree on the distribution of
parliamentary seats per department ahead of the 3 June legislative
polls, angry PS officials filed an appeal, describing the act as
"unconsitutional."
In its petition, PS blamed President Wade for being unfair in
demarcating the country’s 36 districts. The party faulted the
demarcation, arguing that it has favoured the ruling party.
Senegalese government had earlier raised the number of legislative
seats from 120 to 150 earlier this year. This led to the postponement
of the legislative polls, resulting to a bitter confrontation between
striking opposition and police in last January.
Senegalese electoral commission would have been legally mandated to
postpone the 3 June elections had the council ruled in favour of the
opposition.
The council had earlier responded positively to the party’s queries
against the distribution of parliamentary seats. However, the
constitutional court would not agree with PS on its appeal on the
demography issue.
PS is among 15 opposition parties that insisted that unless they hold
talks with President Wade concerning the numerous irregularities in the
February Presidential poll, they would resort to a boycott.
Following President Wade’s refusal to give them audience, the 15
parties did not only boycott the polls, but they have since then been
asking their Senegalese in general to avoid being part of what they
call “assassination of democracy.”
The 25 February polls had been endorsed as free, fair and transparent
by international observers. And the opposition’s attempts to annul the
results also bite the dust.
Despite a boycott by major opposition parties, 15 political parties and
coalitions will be battling for Senegal’s 150 legislative seats.
By staff writer
© afrol News
Women lose foothold in Senegal government
May 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment
(GIN)—An organization representing African working women has denounced
a decision to overturn a law guaranteeing a minimum number of female deputies in
Parliament in Senegal.
Rafet, the African Network of Working Women, said the recent decision by the
constitutional council to overturn the law was disappointing.
The council ruled that a law passed by Parliament late March violated the
constitution, which only grants rights to citizens and not to categories of
citizens. The law would have meant that at least 30 women would have been among
the 150 deputies of the parliamentary Assembly—20 percent of the total.
"Now the constitutional obstacle must be lifted," said Rafet President
Amsatou Sow Sidibe, a law professor at Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar. "It
is a question of human rights and democracy."
Senegal, in any case, currently has about 19 percent female representation in
Parliament, which puts it 13th on the list of African countries, and 56th
worldwide—ahead of Italy and France.
We are throwing away a whole generation
May 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment
