Wade allowed to run for 3rd term

We've been at home for the last 2 days as we awaited the verdict regarding the Constitution. Laird and Dylan certainly let us know they had a bad case of cabin fever, and out of desperation we went for a quick walk around the neighborhood today. All is calm and quiet right now, however there are warnings of riots and future demonstrations.

Below is the link for a story Richard wrote for Reuters.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/28/us-senegal-election-idUSTRE80R0LN20120128

Senegal opposition urges more 'resistance' after riots

12:31pm EST

By Diadie Ba

DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegal's opposition said on Saturday it would make the country "ungovernable" if President Abdoulaye Wade insisted on running for a third term in elections next month, raising the spectre of renewed riots in West Africa's most peaceful nation.

One policeman was killed during protests late on Friday, in which demonstrators threw rocks, overturned cars and burned tyres and security forces fired tear gas, after the country's top court said Wade had the right to seek a new term.

Calm returned to the capital Dakar by Saturday but security was boosted around the presidential palace, where truckloads of police in full riot gear were deployed, armed with tear gas grenade launchers and truncheons.

"Abdoulaye Wade has declared war on the people," Amath Dansakho, the head of the PIT party and member of the M23 opposition activist group, told reporters following a meeting with other political and civil society leaders.

"The decision that we have just made will prove to Wade that this is a country of free people. We will render the country ungovernable," he said.

Friday's clashes came after Senegal's top legal body validated the candidacy of 85-year-old Wade and 13 rivals for the February 26 vote, but turned down the presidential bid of world music star Youssou N'Dour, saying he did not have the required 10,000 signatures of support.

Wade's rivals say the constitution sets an upper limit of two terms on the president. But Wade, who came to power in 2000 and was re-elected in 2007, has argued his first term pre-dated the 2001 amendment establishing the limit.

M23 said in a press release on Saturday the court's decision was a "constitutional coup, and a prelude to what will be an electoral coup" and called on Senegalese across the country to resist Wade's re-election bid.

POLICEMAN KILLED

Senegal's interior ministry said on Saturday that a policeman was killed during Friday's clashes, which began after protesters that had gathered in a public square attempted to march towards the presidential palace.

The policeman "was gravely injured in the head by a brick that had been thrown, and he succumbed shortly afterward," the ministry said in a press release, adding security forces remained committed to preserving the peace.

A leading human rights activist and vocal critic of Wade, Alioune Tine, told Reuters by text message on Saturday afternoon that he had been arrested by Senegal's criminal investigation unit, but he could not give further details.

Wade had appeared on state television late on Friday appealing for calm and promising free and fair polls.

Senegal is the only country in mainland West Africa to have not had a coup since the end of the colonial era. February's poll, and a possible run-off a few weeks later, are seen as a test of social cohesion in the predominantly Muslim country.

Critics say that Wade, who spent 26 years in opposition to Socialist rule, has done nothing during his 12 years in power to alleviate poverty in a country where formal employment is scarce, and has dragged his heels on tackling official graft.

Wade points to spending on education and infrastructure projects such as roadbuilding as proof of progress towards turning Senegal into an emerging market country and a trade hub.

His candidacy has raised eyebrows abroad. The senior U.S. State Department official for Africa, William Fitzgerald, told French RFI radio that Wade's candidacy was "a bit regrettable."

Rival presidential hopeful Amsatou Sow Sidibe called on Wade to withdraw his candidacy voluntarily. "Peace and tranquility in Senegal depends on it," she told Reuters by telephone.

Reuters reporters late on Friday saw youths set fire to tyres and overturn cars in Dakar. Protests were also reported in the towns of Thies, Mbour, and Kaolack, where state radio said the local headquarters of Wade's liberal PDS were burned down.

(Writing and additional reporting by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

© Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world.

Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, use the Reprints tool at the top of any article or visit: www.reutersreprints.com.

President Abdoulaye Wade and his Ego...I mean, Statue

We were hoping to see Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Raul Castro, and Robert Mugabe frolicking together in the pool of the Meridien hotel.

But it was nearly sundown, too cool for a dip, by the time we got there and saddled up to the tiki bar.

“We have thirty presidents in the hotel tonight,” our waitress said as she handed us our drinks. “That is why security is tight,” she added, pointing out the soldiers sprinkled around the hotel grounds and strolling the beach out front.

It was big weekend in Senegal, one in which roads were blocked off by men with machine guns, military ships cruised the normally quiet coast, helicopters buzzed overhead, and Dakar’s premier hotel was booked solid by some world class pariahs and their delegations.

The occasion: Senegal’s 50^th anniversary since independence from French rule…and more importantly perhaps, the official inauguration of the African Renaissance monument, a bronze statue of a family unit looming taller than the statue of Liberty over Dakar.

Senegal’s 83-year-old president, Abdoulaye Wade, hired North Korean labourers to build the monument as an ode to Africa’s progress since the colonial era, brushing aside criticism that the project was a huge waste of money in an impoverished country suffering from crumbling infrastructure.

A local imam put the final touch on public outrage on the eve of the inauguration by declaring a fatwa on the statue. He declared it idolatrous, but he may also have found the woman’s super-mini loin cloth and skimpy blouse an odd portrayal of progress in a predominantly Muslim country.

“It brings to life our common destiny,” Wade said of the monument during the inauguration the next day. “Africa has arrived in the 21^st century standing tall and more ready than ever to take its destiny into its hands.”

As it turned out, there was no Ahmadinejad or Castro in the crowd during the inauguration ceremony. But Mugabe – a man many blame for rapidly destroying Zimbabwe’s ability to feed itself -- was there listening intently.

So was Gambia’s firebrand leader Yahya Jammeh, who for a while said he had an herbal cure for AIDS, has repeatedly jailed high level members of his defense forces, and who has threatened to kill local human rights activists.

Laurent Gbagbo, the ever-enduring president of Ivory Coast was also there, taking a break from arduously prepping for elections in his civil war-scarred country that are now about five years delayed, much to the consternation of voters and the international community.

“I don’t worry about these things. I just want to work and be happy,” said Monique, our nanny. “For me, the real problem will be if they block the road when I try to get home.”

Another problem could be when they check out of the Meridien. No one expects them to pay a cent.

This is a picture of the statue from our rooftop.