Senegal court weighs appeal to Wade decision

DAKAR (AFP) - Senegal's top constitutional body Sunday weighed appeals to its controversial decision to allow octogenarian President Abdoulaye Wade to run for a third term amid opposition vows for mass protests.

Seven candidates, including the leader of the main opposition, two of Wade's former prime ministers and two ex-foreign ministers, have lodged appeals with the Constitutional Council.

Known in Senegal as the "five wise men", the council appointed by Wade has come under fire after declaring his candidacy valid on Friday, a decision which sparked riots that killed one policeman in the normally peaceful west African nation.

Music icon Youssou Ndour is also challenging the decision by the council to leave him off the candidate list. The council ruled some 4,000 signatures he provided were not valid.

A source close to the council told AFP 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, has urged a popular resistance to force him to step aside. Few believe the Constitutional Council will do an about-turn.

However the June 23 Movement (M23), bringing together opposition parties and civil society, said no protest is planned before Tuesday.

"The Council's decision will always favour the regime," said spokesman Abdoul Aziz Diop.

The west African nation, often hailed for its vibrant democracy, was rocked by riots on Friday night as a rally erupted with anger when the council gave the 85-year-old Wade the green light to run February 26 polls.

Calls for calm and fears over further violence poured in after angry youths engaged in running battles with police, torched cars and shops, erected barricades and burned tyres along the seaside capital's main arteries.

M23 coordinator and prominent activist Alioune Tine spent the night in police custody after his arrest following the riots in which a policeman was killed.

"He is still at the Criminal Investigation Division," said Iba Sarr, a colleague at the African Assembly for the Defense 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.

"These deplorable events were a result of the fact that Abdoulaye Wade decided to confiscate the will of the Senegalese people through this electoral coup which is under way," Sall said.

"We are planning to meet to face this oppression through resistance and have called all Senegalese to stand ready to face it, and 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 calling itself "Y'en a Marre" (We're Fed Up) has said it will organise demonstrations "to confront this abuse of authority until the law is restored and until the candidacy of Abdoulaye Wade is invalidated."

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.

Washington warned Wade's candidacy had "the potential to jeopardise a lot of the achievements" in Senegal.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland urged Wade to step down to pave a way "for a new generation of African leaders and solidifying his own stature as a democrat in this way," in a press briefing on Friday.

A joint declaration by Senegalese rights bodies and Amnesty International expressed their "deep concern and fear over the current tension."