14 vie for Senegal presidency

DAKAR – President Abdoulaye Wade sought to win five more years in office yesterday, facing off against 14 challengers as voting began in an election to decide who will lead one of Africa’s most stable democracies.

Wade’s opponents are promising to create jobs in a country where half of the working age population is unemployed and where waves of migrants risk their lives in dangerous sea journeys to try to reach Europe. Among Wade’s strongest opponents is former Prime Minister Idrissa Seck, a man his government jailed and later freed after human rights groups cried foul.Wade is a decade older than the oldest of his 14 opponents and has been criticised for pursuing glitzy building projects that some say benefit the capital’s cosmopolitan elite while doing little to ease the problem of unemployed youth.The 80-year-old Wade, commonly referred to as “gorgui” – a respectful Wolof word for “old man” – says age is not an issue.With electoral polls illegal in Senegal, analysts say it is difficult to predict a winner.The far younger Seck, who is in his 40s, is widely seen as the candidate of choice among youth in Senegal, where more than 40 per cent of the country’s 12 million citizens are under age 14.In 2000, Wade won a landslide victory toppling the Socialist party that had ruled the former French colony for 40 years by appealing, in part, to its disenfranchised youth.The constitution has since been changed to reduce the presidential term from seven to five years.His slogan of “Sopi,” meaning “Change,” has been used against him, with posters throughout this seaside capital showing Seck alongside the words: “Vote for real change.”Seck was appointed premier in November 2002 and sacked 15 months later after being accused of embezzling millions of dollars – charges he denies.He was jailed for seven months starting in July 2005, but then released and cleared of the charges.Senegal, a dry, dusty mostly Muslim nation with few natural resources, is one of a handful of African countries never to have suffered a coup.It is viewed as model of democracy and one of the continent’s most stable countries, with relatively little crime.Nampa-APAmong Wade’s strongest opponents is former Prime Minister Idrissa Seck, a man his government jailed and later freed after human rights groups cried foul.Wade is a decade older than the oldest of his 14 opponents and has been criticised for pursuing glitzy building projects that some say benefit the capital’s cosmopolitan elite while doing little to ease the problem of unemployed youth.The 80-year-old Wade, commonly referred to as “gorgui” – a respectful Wolof word for “old man” – says age is not an issue.With electoral polls illegal in Senegal, analysts say it is difficult to predict a winner.The far younger Seck, who is in his 40s, is widely seen as the candidate of choice among youth in Senegal, where more than 40 per cent of the country’s 12 million citizens are under age 14.In 2000, Wade won a landslide victory toppling the Socialist party that had ruled the former French colony for 40 years by appealing, in part, to its disenfranchised youth.The constitution has since been changed to reduce the presidential term from seven to five years.His slogan of “Sopi,” meaning “Change,” has been used against him, with posters throughout this seaside capital showing Seck alongside the words: “Vote for real change.”Seck was appointed premier in November 2002 and sacked 15 months later after being accused of embezzling millions of dollars – charges he denies.He was jailed for seven months starting in July 2005, but then released and cleared of the charges.Senegal, a dry, dusty mostly Muslim nation with few natural resources, is one of a handful of African countries never to have suffered a coup.It is viewed as model of democracy and one of the continent’s most stable countries, with relatively little crime.Nampa-AP