Senegal polls campaigning ends mid-night Friday
Campaigning closes by mid night Friday, ahead of Senegal’s second round presidential election between incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade and his former Prime Minister Macky Sall.
Both men have been aggressively campaigning across the country to attract the votes of the more than 5 million registered voters come March 25th.
With less than 48 hours to polling, it is not known how many of the 300,000 voter cards that were not collected during the February 26 first round have now been picked up.
The first round saw low turnout, with 42% of eligible Senegalese voters not casting their ballots.
In an interview with West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR) on Wednesday, an executive of the consortium, Goree Institute’s Executive Director Doudou Diop said, there was an urgent need for more public information and sensitization to boost voter turnout.
Meanwhile, the citizen observers network (RESOCIT) ha would deploy more than 4,500 observers for Sunday’s polls.
The announcement was made by members of the network on Thursday in Dakar, where they set up their situation room.
This civil society network is an initiative of the Association of Civil society organizations for election, Goree Institute, a panAfrican organization for democracy development and culture.
It actively took part in the first round of the election on 26 February. For the runoff, it plans to enforce the network’s presence so as to have more transparency in the election.
The open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) is a key sponsor of the civil society network.
OSIWA’s communication officer, Saphy Ly speaks with WADR’s Kara Thioune on why her organization has got involved in the Situation Room Project.
Click audio below to listen
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