DAKAR: Campaigning began yesterday for July 1 legislative elections in Senegal, two months after a presidential vote won by opposition figure Macky Sall. Twenty-four parties or coalitions are contesting the polls, in which voters will pick 150 lawmakers for a five-year mandate in the National Assembly. All 24 planned to air public television and radio spots on the opening day of the campaign. The polls mark the first popularity test for Sall, who won a March 25 presidential run-off against Abdoulaye Wade, ending the previous president's 12 years in power.
Sall's coalition has said its goal is to beat the 65.8 percent of the vote he won in the run-off, which would give it a comfortable majority to push through its agenda. Its main rivals are the Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS), the former ruling party and the controlling force in the outgoing parliament, and a PDS splinter run by speaker of the Senate and former Wade ally Pape Diop. The PDS has accused the new administration of harassing its members in the run-up to the elections, and Diop and several former ministers have in recent days come under investigation in national audits for "ill-gotten gains". Ninety members of parliament are directly elected, with the remaining 60 chosen from party lists on a system of proportional representation. There will be a sharp rise in the number of women lawmakers in the new parliament, after Wade signed into law a bill passed in May 2010 that requires equal representation for men and women.
The campaign lasts until June 29. It got off to a relatively quiet start yesterday, without the abundant banners and signs that usually cover the main streets of the capital, Dakar, at election time.
