Senegal and the Stubborn Old Man

Following the Presidential Election of 26 February, Senegal is to hold a second round following incumbent Abdoulaye Wade’s failure to win outright. The results show that Mr Wade gained 34.8% of the vote in first round and will face his former prime minister, Macky Sall, who came second with 26.5%. Mr Sall enters the race with a lot of hope as the opposition parties have signed a pact to support who- ever comes second in the first round. Macky Sall has been mobilising the opposition and to keep to the promise and has committed himself to constitutional reform that will reverse the 14 constitutional amendments President Wade made to enhance his personal power. He has also promised that if he is elected, he would shorten the presidential term to five years from the current seven, and enforce a two-term limit. He also promised to bring in measures to reduce the price of basic foodstuffs.

Most analysts are of the view that Mr Wade is likely to be thoroughly disgraced in the second round. Indeed, when he went to cast his vote, he was booed by the crowd. For the first time since he entered politics, he could not address the press after voting as he was bundled into his car by his security. There was great celebration when the security came back to retrieve President Wade’s identity card which he had abandoned in the voting booth in his hurry to escape. He lost the vote in his own polling unit As the Senegalese say however; the old man is too stub- born to read the writing on the wall. His bid for a third consecutive term has sparked weeks of violent pro- tests in recent months, leading to six deaths, although the election was well run and peaceful the previous Sunday, the tensions before the elections were extremely high.

I  observed  the  elections  in the Diourbel region and was very impressed with the orderly and compe- tent manner the election held. Results were counted, announced and pasted. One hour after the end of the elections, radio stations all over the country were announcing results and within twenty four hours, it was clear to all that there would be a second round. The run-off would be a referendum against Presi- dent Wade. In spite of the massive show of opposition to his tenure elongation plans, President Wade, who is 85 years old, still insisted on contesting leading to massive demonstrations. He got the Constitutional Council he appointed to validate his candidature although the Constitution is very clear that no Pres- ident can serve more than two terms. Wade had served one term of five years and a second term of seven years.

He argued however that after his first term, the Constitution was amended so the first term he served does not count under the principles that Constitutions can- not act retrospectively. He therefore insists that as he has served only one term under the new Constitution, he is entitled to another term. It was this self serving argument that really angered the Senegalese people.

Part of the people’s anger is that President Wade who is 85 years old is planning to context the Presidential election to install his son Karim Wade as Vice President who will succeed him. To prepare his son’s political career, he had made him the major contractor for all major contracts in the country over the past five years. He was also the organiser of the Conference of Islamic Organisations (OIC) meeting a couple of years ago and received all the for- eign donations to prepare Dakar for the conference. Immediately after the OIC conference, Karim Wade with his fat war chest contested to be the Mayor of Dakar. He was disgraced at the polls and lost his deposit. His father then compensated him by merging five min- istries together and appointing Karim as super minister. The constitutional proposal aimed at making Karim Vice President was therefore aimed at pre- paring the father to son political suc- cession.

The second round is expected towards the end of March and Macky Sall is determined to dis-

grace his old mentor. He had served under Wade as minister and subsequently as President of the National Assembly. He was disgraced when Parliament under his tutelage decided to investigate contracts carried out by Karim Wade. Wade the father ordered an immediate end to the investigation by Sall refused. Wade then ordered him to resign and he refused making the arguments about the separation of powers. Wade then mobilised the parliamentarians and got them to throw Mr Sall out.

All the other powerful politicians like Idrissa Seck and Ibrahim Niasse that Wade threw out to remove possible future competition for his son have lined up behind Mr. Sall. Another powerful support base for Mr. Sall is the musician Youssou Ndour. He tried to contest as an independent candidate but was disqualified from contesting by the Constitutional Council. As an independent candidate, he needed ten thou- sand signatures supporting his nomination. The Council claimed some of the people on his list did not answer when their telephones were called for verification. This act by the Council really angered the Senegalese because the popular musician actually submit- ted 13,000 verified names and it was not clear whether the Council called people more than once. They were clearly acting out a script because Wade was afraid of the Youssou candidature.

Meanwhile, the powerful civil society movement known as the June 23 Movement (M23) were very active in ensuring the people monitor the polls closely to prevent rigging. They had been organising tens of thousands of Senegalese – the political opposition, civil society and religious leaders to occupy Senegal and block the Wade Project. Many were arrested and beaten by the police but they remained stead- fast. When Wade ordered the police to bring out tanks and bloc all avenues leading to the square, they called on Senegalese in Dakar to converge on a mosque and pray to God to stop Wade. President Wade foolishly ordered the police to tear gas worshippers at the mosque and this act really notched up the level of anger. President Wade apologized profusely for the act and ordered the police