Senegal’s former President Abdoulaye Wade has called on Senegalese voters to boycott the upcoming presidential elections.
Senegalese head to the polls on February 24 to elect a new president.
The poll comes as uncertainty continues to grip one of the country’s main opposition parties, the Senegalese Democratic Party.
The party’s candidate, Karim Wade, was disqualified from taking part in the elections following his conviction and subsequent jailing on corruption charges.
Karim Wade is a son to ex-president Wade and has been in Qatar since his release from prison in 2016.
The senior Wade who returned to Senegal from France on Thursday accused incumbent president Macky Sall of employing dubious tactics.
Wade also urged Sall’s four opponents to not give credibility to the vote and urged Senegalese to burn their voting cards.
Meanwhile the Head of Communication for Président Macky Sall Campaign El Hadj Hamidou Kasse told The Fatu Network ex-president’s Wade’s “call for violence is a challenge to the Senegalese state”.
“We are a State governed by the rule of law, which oversees the respect of the electoral calendar, the free expression of citizens in these elections and the security of persons and property. Those who try to undermine the rights of citizens are thus exposed to the law. In addition, the election campaign has been going on for a week in calm over the entire national territory. This climate of peace will be preserved until polling day,” Kasse said.
