Senegal: EU urges transparency in voter registration

Dakar, Friday

The European Union observer mission in Senegal has urged the Electoral Affairs Ministry to ensure more transparency in the distribution of voter cards to lend credibility to the February 26 presidential elections.

The EU mission has recommended in a statement that the ministry periodically publishes the number of voter cards issued.

It further requested the ministry to work with the prefects and sub-prefects to provide information to the public about the number of voter cards issued in their respective localities.

The mission urged the Electoral Affairs Ministry to provide information on the number of voter cards produced before 2010, in 2010 and in 2011.

The EU call comes in the wake violence that erupted in the country after the country’s top court last month ruled that President Abdoulaye Wade can run for a third term in office.

Riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets Wednesday to disperse protesters trying to hold a banned march against President Abdoulaye Wade’s bid for a third term in this month’s elections.

Protesters set buildings and barricades on fire in the capital. A policeman was killed in the unrest, officials say.

The mission has also asked the national electoral commission and the independent departmental electoral unit to publish information regarding the distribution of the voter cards.

Such information, EU pointed out, would enable the mission and other stakeholders to examine the present stage of the electoral process.

The EU observers arrived in Senegal on January 20 and have been following the tense electoral process. They observers at the same time called for respect of the country’s constitution.

The EU mission said it was interested in the 2011 voter cards distribution figures following the revision of the voter registration and those produced in the aftermath of the demarcation of new chiefdoms and polling stations.

The opposition had criticised the boundaries delimitation creating tension that prompted violence that led to deaths. “This is primordial and must be detailed enough,” the statement insisted.

The mission’s intervention stems from agitation by the opposition about the viability of the voter cards and the inability of many illegible people to obtain them.

Before the arrival of the EU observers, several opposition parties had been slugging it out with the ruling party over the refusal by the police stations to issue voter cards to thousands of opposition youths.

Duplicated cards

Early this week, the local media published some duplicated voter cards which the opposition claimed was a tip of the iceberg of the massive fraud that President Abdoulaye Wade had planned.

The mission has also called on political parties to deploy their representatives to all the administrative commissions responsible for the distribution of voter cards as stipulated by the electoral code.