 DAKAR - Senegals veteran President Abdoulaye Wade on Monday claimed he had won a second mandate in Sundays hotly-contested presidential vote in one of Africas 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, Wades campaign manager and also the countrys 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. |
Macky Sall, Wades campaign manager and also the countrys 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. No official results were published four hours after polling stations closed. Private radios streaming unofficial results as they were counted at polling stations, said with 35 percent of ballots counted, Wade had obtained 53 percent of the ballots.
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.
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If Wade proclaims victory, the people will not accept that, said Khalifa Tall, campaign manager for Ousmane Tanor Dieng, candidate of the ex-ruling Socialist party. We are still planning for a second round, he said, raising fears of trouble in the only west African nation not to have experienced a military coup since its independence, in 1960.
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| Cheikh Diallo | | |
| Idriss Seck | | |
| Khalifa Tall | | |
| Macky Sall | | |
| Ousmane Tanor Dieng | | |
| President Abdoulaye Wade | | |
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