"Protesters seize area in Senegal’s capital" February 20, 2012|By Associated Press
DAKAR, Senegal — Protesters demanding the departure of Senegal’s aging president seized control of a three-block stretch in the heart of the capital yesterday, erecting barricades and lobbing rocks at police just days before a contentious presidential poll.
It was the fifth day of violent protests ahead of the country’s crucial vote, and so far six people have been killed. President Abdoulaye Wade, 85, is insisting on running, despite the deepening unrest and calls from France and the United States to hand power to the next generation....
I take that to initially mean the U.S. is behind these protests.
A new concern was raised yesterday, as the friction took on a religious dimension in this normally tolerant Muslim nation. Hundreds had gathered outside a mosque as religious leaders met to discuss a Friday incident in which police used grenade launchers to throw tear gas down the wide boulevard, at one point hitting the wall of the mosque.
Footage of the incident shown on Senegalese TV indicated that the police had not shot inside the mosque, but outside where a crowd had gathered.
But the cloud of gas enveloped worshipers praying inside and outside the shrine, deeply offending Senegal’s largest Muslim brotherhood, which owns the mosque.
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Time to vote:
"Senegalese president booed on election day" Associated Press, February 27, 2012
DAKAR, Senegal - Voters booed Senegal’s president as he went to cast his ballot in elections yesterday, the latest sign of how his decision to seek a third term in office has caused his popularity to plummet and divided a country that is often held up as a model of stability and tolerance.
The unrest leading to the vote has threatened the reputation of this normally unflappable republic on Africa’s western coast as one of the continent’s oldest and most mature democracies.
In choosing to run again, the 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade is contradicting the term limits he introduced into the constitution.
Wade was jeered and insulted when he arrived to vote.
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And the next person voted out of Senegal is....
"Senegal’s vote results lag, spurring questions; Unofficial returns hint the president may face a runoff" by Rukmini Callimachi | Associated Press, February 29, 2012
DAKAR, Senegal — European Union observers questioned why Senegal’s government is not publishing real-time results from a contentious presidential election, saying yesterday that in the Internet age there is no reason for the delay....
It is a long way to fall for 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade, who spent 25 years as the country’s main opposition leader. When elected in 2000, he was so popular that his rallies were attended by hundreds of thousands of people. Even in the polling station where he has voted for decades, Wade was loudly booed on Sunday when he went to cast his ballot.
Many believe that for Wade to maintain power, he needed to win in the first round when the opposition was split. His chances of winning are much slimmer in a runoff when he will be facing a united opposition.
Wade has refused calls from France and the United States to retire, insisting on running for a third term in contradiction of the term limits he himself introduced into the constitution, but which he says do not apply retroactively to him. Weeks of protest preceded the vote, endangering the reputation of a nation considered a model of stability.
Thijs Berman, the head of the 90-member observation mission, said that although the campaign leading to the election was marred by violence, the actual vote proceeded peacefully. Few irregularities were noted, among them the late opening of some polling stations and the fact that not all election monitors checked to make sure that voters dipped their fingers in indelible ink.
Wade has appeared disconnected from the criticism, telling reporters that he was going to win with a crushing majority and the demonstrations were “nothing more than a light breeze.’’
Ibrahima Mbow, a spokesman for the coalition supporting Sall, the leading opposition candidate, used Wade’s words against him during a TV round-table discussion Monday night hosted by private channel Africa-7.
“Seventy percent of Senegalese rejected him,’’ Mbow said. “He said it was a little breeze? This breeze is now threatening to blow over his throne. He needs to go.
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