afrol News, 12 March - Senegal's highest judicial authority, the Constitutional Court, yesterday rejected an appeal filed by some opposition leaders to annul the results of the 25 February presidential polls. The court consequently confirmed the re-election of President Abdoulaye Wade, who polled 55.9 percent of the valid ballots.

A panel of constitutional judges, who disclosed their verdict to the media, ruled out any "cheating or irregularity" in the conduct of the polls, arguing that the opposition petitions "lacked grounds."

At the polls, Mr Wade was followed by his former Prime Minister, Idrissa Secka, who scored 15 percent of the votes. Mr Seck had been quiet since the results were first declared.

But he convened a news conference today to finally concede defeat as well as congratulate President Wade on his victory. The former Prime Minister was not among the opposition that questioned fairness of the results.

Mr Wade, who had earlier announced to settle scores with some opposition leaders, accusing them of harming the state through official corruption, said he does not care about Mr Seck's congratulatory message. Mr Wade wondered why Mr Seck would wait until last minute to congratulate him.

President Wade accused Mr Seck of stealing over franc CFA 40 billion (euro 60 million) from the state coffers and to have deposited them in foreign banks accounts.

President Wade said he had forgiven all those who harmed him personally but that he would not forgive those who harmed the country. He said he was waiting for the elections to pass so that the state resumes its normal life.

The leaders of Socialist Party (PS) and Democratic League/Movement for the Labour Party (LD/MLP) - Ousmane Tanor Dieng and Abdoulaye Bathily - had filed the appeal against the provisional results, insisting that the voting process was marred by irregularities, although international observers had not questioned the outcome of the polls.

While Mr Dieng ranked third position with 13.57 percent, Mr Bathily sat on the sixth position with only 2.21 percent of the votes.

The PS spokesperson, Aissata Tall-Sall, said she was disappointed with the court's decision because "our arguments were absolutely indisputable because the results from 31 of the 35 regional districts failed to tally, for they were contained in ballot boxes without stamps of the Autonomous National Electoral Commission."

She said her party leadership had expected the nullification of the results and not the other way round.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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