February 28, 2000
DAKAR, Senegal (PANA) - In the wake of a strong showing by the opposition in Sunday's Senegalese presidential election, President Abdou Diouf's ruling Socialist Party, hitherto first round winners of the past elections, has accepted to negotiate with its opponents in the second round.
The party, which has ruled the country since independence in 1960, had sworn to win outright in the first round, a situation the opposition had contested, saying this could only happen if there was rigging.
"The Socialist Party does not exclude the possibility of negotiating with the opponents, should there be a second round in this presidential election," Khalifa Ababakar Sall, the party's election co-ordinator, said.
"We are open and ready to undertake the initiatives for discussion with all those who favour the PS candidate in the second round," he told a news conference in Dakar Monday.
Justifying the party's latest position, Sall said "second round elections have always been the occasion of forming alliances and the PS will not be an exception to the practice."
The possibility of a second round election emerged Monday following partial results released from some of the polling centres across the country, which Sall said "constitutes an excellent phenomenon for the consolidation of democracy in Senegal."
He, however, said that the possibility of a second round election should not be taken as a defeat for the PS, which, according to him, remained the majority party in the country.
Opposition parties are saying, however, that the mere fact that there is going to be a second round election means that the Socialist Party has been beaten or would be beaten.
But analysts say that Diouf has a chance of emerging the winner if he negotiates well with the opposition which has not shown such an inclination because of intra party squabbles.
Apart from the failure of the PS to clinch victory in Pikine, a high-desnity suburb near Dakar, Diouf did well in all the other 29 major centres, Sall said, adding that the president even won in an area thought to be a stronghold of one of his opponents.
He attributed Diouf's failure to win in Dakar and Pikine to the displeasure of the youth because of strong social demands made by them.
The youths, most of whom are found among the urban electorate, said that they had decided to stand up for their rights and vote for a change in the political life of the country.
Sall agreed that there is a need for the PS to look inwards and sharpen its strategies and make some amendments in its mode of operation if it is to remain the majority party.