Incumbent Senegalese head of state and standard bearer of the coalition called Allied Forces (FAL 2012), Abdoulaye Wade, has invited voters not to turn their back on the election but to go to the polls on February 26 2012.

“You have to vote on 26 February and avoid invalid ballots, because it’s a loss,”said Wade on Wednesday at a rally in his hometown of Kebemer (155km north of Dakar).

Wade, who was first elected in 2000 as the candidate of ‘Coalition Alternance’ (CA 2000) and re-elected in 2007, is seeking a third term, which other candidates gathered in the opposition and civil society ‘Mouvement du 23 Juin’ (M23) consider as contrary to the Constitution that limits presidential terms to two.

”M23 only exists on a few TV screens. It may also exist at the Obelisk Square, in the centre of the capital, where its members meet from time to time to let off steam,” Wade said with irony, insisting that an election "is the people’s business, they are the ones who decide.”

This is Abdoulaye Wade’s 7th presidential bid, after his unsuccessful attempts in 1978, 1983, 1988 and 1993. In the 2000 election, he had won 31 per cent of the votes in the first round, against 41.3 per cent for former President Abdou Diouf.

Abdoulaye Wade, who benefited from the transfer of the votes of Moustapha Niasse in the second round, ultimately won the 2000 election with 58.1 per cent of the votes, ending a 40-year rule by the Socialist Party. He was sworn-in as President of the Republic of Senegal on 1st April 2000.

His campaign manager in the 2000 poll, Idrissa Seck, whom he appointed Prime Minister in 2002, is now running for presidency.

In the 25 February 2007 election, during which he was standing against 14 candidates, Wade was re-elected in the first round with 55.79 per cent of the votes.

Thirteen candidates are standing against Wade in these second presidential polls under the 3rd Republic.

Source African Press Agency

African News from NetNewsPublisher.com