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Protests sweep through Senegal after poll ruling

Street protests spread through towns across Senegal overnight on Saturday after a top legal body said President Abdoulaye Wade had the right to run for a third term in elections next month.
Local television said one policeman died from head injuries after clashes in the capital Dakar. Reuters reporters saw youths set fire to tires and overturn cars after a ruling of the West African country's Constitutional Council late on Friday night.
Rivals to 85-year-old Wade say the constitution sets an upper limit of two terms on the president. Wade, who came to power in 2000 and was re-elected in 2007, has argued his first term pre-dated the 2001 amendment establishing the limit.
Senegal's Constitutional Council validated his candidacy and that of 13 rivals for the February 26 vote but turned down the presidential bid of world music star Youssou N'Dour, saying he had not gathered the required 10,000 signatures of support.
N'Dour called on his supporters to prevent the elections from going ahead.
"We will never allow Abdoulaye Wade to take part in the election," he said, speaking on his own TFM television channel.
"The decision to keep me out had nothing to do with the law. It was a political decision and we will reply with a political decision," he said, without giving further details.
Senegal is the only country in mainland West Africa to have not had a coup since the end of the colonial era. February's poll, and a possible run-off a few weeks later, are seen as major test of social peace in the predominantly Muslim country.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/1/28/worldupdates/2012-01-28T033608Z_2_TRE80R00V_RTR
28 January 2012, Saturday
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