Wade steps up hunt for votes

DAKAR, Thursday

Senegal’s veteran leader Abdoulaye Wade on Thursday launched a two-week poll campaign facing defeat by rival Macky Sall in his controversial bid for a third term in office.

The 85-year-old incumbent headed to the provinces on Thursday to court leaders of the influential Islamic brotherhood, whose stamp of approval is seen as essential to sway voters in the majority Muslim nation on the tip of West Africa.

“Wade is convinced that only ndiguels can help him catch up” his rival, wrote news website Dakaractu, referring to voting recommendations in the local Wolof language.

The president suffered a humiliating setback in a first round election on February 26, in which he scored 34.81 per cent and his ex-prime minister 26.58 per cent, forcing him to defend his third term bid in a run-off poll on March 25.

Wade’s spokesman El Hadj Amadou Sall said the incumbent and his supporters would not be dissuaded and would take to the campaign trail with “confidence and aggressiveness”.

The Senegalese Press Agency reported today that the Wade camp had set up a special commission to evaluate what went wrong in the election in which he had vowed a crushing victory in the face of violent protests against his ambitions which could see him ruling into his 90s if re-elected.

Preparing rallies

The rival sides say they are preparing rallies in the upcoming days. Sall, 50, is an engineer who is taking part in his first election, having once been pegged as Wade’s successor before a bitter fall-out.

After his strong showing in the first round he has won support from the most influential candidates trailing him as the opposition seeks to unseat the sit-tight leader Wade.

Wade’s opponents combined scored more than 60 per cent of the votes cast in the first round, a sign of the sharp drop in the president’s popularity since he was re-elected in 2007 with 55 per cent.

Senegal’s reputation as a haven of stability and one of Africa’s pioneer democracies was shaken in the run-up to the election with four weeks of riots which left six people dead and some 150 injured.

The opposition accuses Wade of circumventing a two-term limit he himself inserted into the constitution in order to cling to power.

(AFP)