Campaigning for Sunday’s presidential election in Senegal has begun to close with tensions raised by clashes between supporters of incumbent leader Abdoulaye Wade and those of one of his main challengers.
The wooing of voters officially ends at midnight on Friday, sealing three weeks of a generally peaceful campaign marred by the violence on Wednesday night, which left about 10 people hurt in a nation presented as a model of democracy in Africa.
The skirmishes pitting Wade loyalists against fans of former prime minister Idriss Seck caused concern after an otherwise calm pre-electoral period marked by street carnivals and musical jamborees as well as slogans and speeches.
A spokesperson for the West African Civil Society Forum, which has deployed nearly 100 observers, on Friday described the run-up to the poll as ”peaceful, even if people are apprehensive”.
A record 15 candidates jostling for the country’s top job are likely to split the vote, which means there will be a second round if none of them garners the minimum 50% of ballots needed for an outright victory.
Leading the pack of contenders is the octogenarian Wade, whose election in 2000 brought to an end four decades of socialist rule in one of West Africa’s most stable regional hubs.
Throughout Friday, the candidates were putting final touches to their promises to the 4,9-million voters.
Wade (80) is considered an economic liberal vying for a new mandate ”to continue to build Senegal”.
His former protégé and ex-prime minister Seck (47), promising to bring ”true change”, was holding his last rally in his stronghold town of Thies, 70km east of Dakar, where he is also mayor.
A socialist of the former ruling party, Ousmane Tanor Dieng (60), who also vows give ”a new impetus”, is grouping his followers at the giant Leopold Sedar Senghor Stadium in the capital’s working-class suburb of Parcelles Assainies.
Dissident politician Moustapha Niasse (68), an ex-prime minister who served in both the governments of Wade and his predecessor, Abdou Diouf, is selling himself as the ”credible statesman” and is to meet supporters in Dakar’s most populous suburb of Guediawaye.
Wade’s rivals in the only country in West Africa not to have experienced a coup, accuse him of falling short on his pledges.
He is under fire, particularly over the tide of youths risking their lives in rickety fishing boats trying to illegally enter Europe, crumbling social conditions and financial scandals.
Wade was seen as a champion of a new youth employment policy, while preaching grand construction projects to modernise the country.
Although Senegal’s GNP per capita has improved from $450 in 2000 to $710 in 2005 according to World Bank figures, it is ranked among the world’s 20 most impoverished countries in terms of human development.
More than 2 000 observers, among them 500 international, will watch the poll, according to Interior Minister Ousmane Ngom.
If necessary, the second round of polling is planned for 18 March. — Sapa-AFP