DEVELOPING TIMES

Senegalese in presidential poll


Large queues have been forming outside polling stations
Voters are going to the polls in a presidential election in Senegal, the West African nation held up as one of the continent's few stable democracies.

Incumbent Abdoulaye Wade is up against 14 rivals as he seeks a second term.

Mr Wade narrowly won elections in 2000, but has come under pressure in recent months over high rural unemployment.

Other leading contenders are Moustapha Niasse and the youthful Idrissa Seck, who have both served as prime minister in Mr Wade's administration.


All the time they [the candidates] just talk politics, politics, politics. I don't think the politicians can end our problems - I don't believe in them
Yayi Bayam Diouf, voter

Ousmane Tanor Dieng, who served under the previous president, Abdou Diouf, is also seen as a strong contender.

The BBC's Will Ross in Dakar says that although Mr Wade is seen by many as the favourite, there are several unknown factors.

New system

Senegal, a predominately Muslim nation, is seen as a rare model of stable democracy in Africa. It is the only West African nation not to have experienced a coup since independence, and polls in 2000 passed off peacefully.

This time five million people will be eligible to vote, using a new electronic voting system which reads thumbprints.

The system should make the processing of results faster and easier, but our correspondent says there has been some concern over the accuracy of this new and as yet untested voting method.

Voting began at 0800GMT at more than 11,000 polling stations.

Our correspondent says lengthy queues have been forming at polling stations across the country, many of which are schools.

Dakar voices

Some voters say they again will be backing Mr Wade, pointing that he has started a number of large-scale projects to transform the country.

"Before Wade we were under a socialist regime for 40 years," says Mamadou Fall, a tailor in Dakar.

President Abdoulaye Wade at a rally in Dakar on 23 February
President Abdoulaye Wade is seeking a second term in office
"But in the last seven years he has done a lot of building roads and bridges. We even have tunnels in Senegal," he added.

Others say the construction projects are doing nothing to address the real needs of the poor Senegalese.

"Unfortunately President Wade started changing the rules of the game and didn't want a level playing field," says Jacques Habib Sy, who runs the organisation Aid Transparency.

"He appointed four prime ministers in six years and got rid of all the people who supported him in 2000 and that sent out a very wrong signal," he said.

Clashes

The number of voters has almost doubled since the last election and there have been no independent opinion polls.

And with so many candidates, it may be extremely hard for any of them to get the 50% of votes needed to win outright in a first round, our correspondent says.

Campaigning has been for the most part peaceful.

But earlier this week, clashes in the capital, Dakar, between rival supporters of Mr Wade and Mr Seck left five people seriously injured.