DAKAR - Senegal’s veteran President Abdoulaye Wade on Monday claimed he had won a second mandate in Sunday’s hotly-contested presidential vote in one of Africa’s most stable democracies. “We have largely won in the first round. They are the first strong and unchanging trends,” Cheikh Diallo, head of public relations for Wade told AFP Monday.| Macky Sall, Wade’s campaign manager and also the country’s Prime Minister said the octogenarian had garnered 57 percent of the votes according to partial and unofficial results. “Wade largely surpassed the 50 percent mark needed to be elected in the first round,” said Sall. |
The proclaimed victory based on unofficial partial results stoked tension in opposition ranks where many of his challengers, including a former prime minister he sacked two years ago, Idriss Seck, 47, have said only electoral fraud would make it possible for him to win in the first round. Even before the official closing time of polls, Wade supporters had driven around the streets of the capital blowing car and motorcycle horns in celebration.