Eight presidential hopefuls register for polls

A Muslim religious leader has registered for Senegal’s elections due on 27 February, according to news reports. Ousseynou Fall and seven secular politicians registered before Thursday’s deadline, set by the constitutional court, PANA reported. Fall is running on the Senegalese Republican Party ticket. He is the brother of the caliph of the Baye Fall, a militant Islamic sect responsible for security at all religious events organised by the Mouride brotherhood. PANA reported that this was not the first time Islamic figures had run for political office. It said that Cheikh Tidiane Sy of the Tidiane brotherhood received 13 percent of the vote in 1960 against Senegal’s first president, Leopold Sedar Senghor, a Christian. The Tidiane brotherhood, which also has members in Nigeria and Sudan, has its centre in Senegal’s second largest town, Kaolack. Among the secular candidates is veteran politician Abdoulaye Wade, who is running for the fifth consecutive poll since his first against Senghor in 1978. Wade is the candidate of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS). Incumbent President Abdou Diouf is the candidate for the Socialist Party (PS), which has held power since independence in 1960. Diouf is seeking his fourth consecutive term in office. Other prominent candidates are Moustapha Niasse of the Forces for Progress Alliance; Djibo Ka, a former cabinet minister who broke with the PS to form the Union for Democratic Renewal, and Iba Der Thiam, Diouf’s former minister of education and now leader of the Patriotic and Democratic Convention, PANA said.