Senegal: Court Decision Allows Wade for Third Term
By Staff writer
DAKAR---Senegal’s highest court has dismissed an opposition appeal against a ruling that allows incumbent leader Abdoulaye Wade to run for a third presidential term, confirming that the 85-year-old can run in the upcoming election.
Violent protests rocked the Senegalese capital of Dakar on Friday after the constitutional court ruled that the 85-year-old Wade had a right to seek a third term against 13 other rivals in the February 26 vote. Security forces in the capital fired teargas at demonstrators who threw stones, overturned cars and erected barricades with burning tyres. The country’s interior minister says one policeman was killed in the Friday’s clashes which began after protesters that had gathered in a public square attempted to march towards the presidential palace.
Protests were also reported in other towns of Thies, Mbour and Kaolack where it was reported in the state radio that local headquarters of Wade’s Liberal PDS party were burned down.
Calm returned to the capital, Dakar by Saturday amid heavy security around the presidential palace, where truckloads of police in full riot gear were deployed. Wade appeared on State TV on Friday appealing for calm, promising free and fair polls.
Three of the opposition candidates including renowned musician Youssou N’dour lost appeals on Sunday against the ruling, blocking them from running in the vote. The court had argued that it could not verify the many signatures gathered by Mr. N’Dour to support his candidacy.
"Senegal and its people are sick. We have been betrayed by this shameful decision. I say shameful because neither the will of the Senegalese people nor the opinions of experts in constitutional law have been heard. Mr Wade has imposed his will and won the day," Mr N'Dour said.
Wade maintains the 2001 amendment pre-dated his first term in 2000 and would start count after his 2007 re-election, giving him another chance in the upcoming vote.
Opposition activist group M23 said after meeting on Saturday said the court’s decision was a “constitutional coup that would amount to an electoral coup, saying they will call for more resistance to the court approval of Wade’s bid, threatening to force him out of power.
"We are asking the people to remain alert and to resist Abdoulaye Wade," Abdoul Aziz Diop, the spokesman for M23, told the Reuters news agency on Saturday. “The decision that we have just made will prove to Wade that this is a country of free people. We will render the country ungovernable,” he said.
Wade, who staged four unsuccessful bids during his 26 years in opposition has been criticised for not doing much in his 12 years in power to alleviate country’s poverty. Senegal is the only mainland West African nation that has not witnessed coups since independence from colonial powers.