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Senegal is considered one of the most mature democracies in Africa, and unlike many of its neighbors, its democratic tradition dates to even before independence from France 51 years ago. Starting in the mid-1800s, France allowed its colony to elect a deputy who served in the French parliament. And in his official biography, Wade traces his roots to the Cayor kingdom located in Senegal's central plains, where kings were elected by a committee of elders rather than through a hereditary system common in many other parts of Africa. "What shocks people is that he would try to run for a third term," said the country's leading investigative journalist Abdou Latif Coulibaly, the editor-in-chief of The Gazette magazine who voted for Wade in 2000 but who is now supporting the opposition. "It's the problem of his age. It's the problem of the constitution. And to be frank, people are very scared that he will try to hand power to his son
-- which is something that the population does not want at all." Hours before the court was due to release its verdict, Pape Sy circled the city looking for an open gas station. For three days, a fuel strike had closed down gas stations, adding yet another point of applied pressure. Finally in the Medina neighborhood of the capital, he pulled in behind the 13 other cars lined up head-to-toe at a Total station, which had just reopened. His gasoline gauge had already dipped below 0. "Things don't smell good," he said, summing up the mood in the capital. "There are economic problems, and these other issues are attaching themselves onto that like pieces of Scotch tape. People want change. ... To me this really feels like the end of a reign."
Unlike nearly all its neighbors, Senegal does not have history of violent demonstrations, or of military intervention in state affairs. The country was shaken, however, by the riots that shut down the capital last summer when Wade's party attempted to rush a law through parliament that would have created the post of vice president, a move that critics said was an attempt to create a mechanism of succession through which Wade could pass power to his son. At Place de l'Obelisque, hundreds of youths gathered to protest before the court's decision, saying they planned to turn it into the equivalent of Egypt's Tahrir Square if the five judges presiding over the constitutional court validate Wade's candidacy. "Everyone knows that Wade's candidacy is anti-constitutional. The court must play the role of referee," said 34-year-old Ibrahima Diop, who like many in the square is unemployed. "We placed a lot of hope in Abdoulaye Wade. He let us down. We deserve better."
[Associated
Press;
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