Dakar - Senegal's top constitutional body on Sunday weighed appeals to its controversial decision to allow President Abdoulaye Wade to run for a third term amid opposition vows for mass protests.
The Constitutional Council, appointed by 85-year-old Wade and known as the “five wise men”, had on Friday declared his renewed candidacy valid, sparking deadly riots in the normally peaceful West African nation.
Seven candidates - including the leader of the main opposition party, two of Wade's former prime ministers and two ex-foreign ministers - have lodged appeals with the council against Wade running again.
Music icon Youssou Ndour is also challenging the decision by the body to leave him off the candidate list. The council ruled that 4 000 signatures he had provided for his candidacy were not valid.
A source close to the council told AFP on Sunday that it would reach a final decision by Monday afternoon. “The wise men must each very clearly justify their decision on the appeal,” he said.
The anti-Wade camp, united in their determination to unseat him, urged a popular resistance campaign to force him to step aside. Few believe the Constitutional Council will do an about-turn.
However, the June 23 Movement (M23), which brings together opposition parties and civil society, said no protest was planned before Tuesday.
“The Council's decision will always favour the regime,” said M23 spokesperson Abdoul Aziz Diop.
Senegal, often hailed for its vibrant democracy, was rocked by riots on Friday night as a rally erupted with anger when the council gave Wade the green light to run in February 26 polls.
On policeman was killed in the turmoil when angry youths engaged in running battles with police, torched cars and shops, erected barricades and burned tyres in the capital's main arteries.
M23 co-ordinator and prominent activist Alioune Tine spent Saturday night in police custody after his arrest following the riots.
“He is still at the Criminal Investigation Division,” said Iba Sarr, a colleague at the African Assembly for the Defence of Human Rights (RADDHO) - a local rights body of which Tine is secretary general.
RADDHO said Tine was arrested on Saturday afternoon without a warrant.
Macky Sall, a former prime minister under Wade who is also running in the election, blamed the president for the violence as his opponents vowed to do everything in their power to make him renounce his candidacy.
Sall accused Wade of staging an “electoral coup” and urged people to “make every effort to ensure that Wade retracts his candidacy because there is no chance he will take part in the election”.
Sall called for “everything at once: marches, sit-ins, resistance (but) no violence”.
Another anti-Wade movement, started up by rappers and calling itself “Y'en a Marre” (We're Fed Up), has said it will organise demonstrations.
Wade has dismissed the opposition protests as “temper tantrums”.
When the former opposition leader was elected in 2000 for a seven-year mandate there was no term limit in the constitution.
He was re-elected in 2007 after introducing the two-term limit and reducing the mandate to five years.
He again revised the text in 2008, reverting to a seven-year mandate, renewable once. Wade argues that the law is not retroactive so he is entitled to two fresh terms from 2012, but the opposition disagrees.
In Washington, US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland on Friday urged Wade to step down to pave the way “for a new generation of African leaders” while “solidifying his own stature as a democrat in this way”.
A joint declaration by Senegalese rights bodies and Amnesty International expressed their “deep concern and fear over the current tension”.
On Sunday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, speaking at an African Union summit in Ethiopia, called on African leaders should respect democracy, though he did not specifically mention Senegal.
The Arab Spring revolutions that swept north Africa last year were “a reminder that leaders must listen to their people”, he said.
“Events proved that repression is a dead end. Police power is no match to people power seeking dignity and justice,” he said. - Sapa-AFP