Præsident Wade fik indrettet det sådan, at han kunne stille op for tredje gang, selv om ånden i det vestafrikanske lands forfatning tilsiger noget andet – hans langt yngre modkandidat har gode chancer.
Senegal’s leader Abdoulaye Wade will now go to a run-off second round of Presidential elections after failing to win more than 50 per cent in the first round of voting Sunday, BBC online reports Tuesday.
Unofficial figures show Mr Wade, 85, is likely to face former Prime Minister Macky Sall in the run-off.
Senegal’s election commission has yet to release any provisional results. Unofficial results – with more than half of the vote counted – gave Mr Wade 32 per cent, with his closest rival Mr Sall on 25 per cent.
Mr Wade’s bid for a third term has sparked weeks of violent protests, leading to about six deaths.
Election officials previously said provisional results would be available on Tuesday – but then changed the day to Friday, saying they were acting within the law.
“In the internet-era, it is inconceivable (uforståelig) that the Senegalese will need to wait until Friday to know the official results,” the head of the delegation of European parliamentarians, Cristian Dan Preda said.
The second round is due on Sunday 18 March.
Macky Sall, 50, who is running for the first time, told the BBC that it would be “easy” to win in the second round, as he said all opposition candidates had agreed to unite behind whoever emerged as Mr Wade’s challenger.
Senegal’s constitutional court ruled in January that Mr Wade could stand again on the grounds that his first term had not counted since it began before the two-term limit was introduced in 2001.
Senegal, a former French colony, is seen as a stable democracy with an unbroken series of elections since independence in 1960.
It remains the only West African country where the army has never seized power.
