Senegal's president looks to win parliamentary majority<\/p>\n
DAKAR (AFP): Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade looked poised
\non Monday to win a parliamentary majority on early election
\nresults, a year after dealing a first blow to socialists
\nentrenched in power for four decades.<\/p>\n
The Sopi coalition backing Wade, who won a presidential poll
\nin March last year, was set to take between 45 and 53 percent of
\nthe 120 National Assembly seats on unofficial results from
\nSunday's general election.<\/p>\n
Some analysts and newspapers were already saying that Sopi,
\nwhich means \"change\" in the Wolof language, and groups political
\nmovements around Wade's Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), had
\nwon the \"third round of the presidential poll\".<\/p>\n
For the Socialist Party and other opposition movements, these
\nresults appeared to crush their hopes of preventing the 75-year-
\nold economic liberal and longtime opposition leader, of swinging
\nparliament firmly behind him.<\/p>\n
The private Sud Quotidien said Sopi had captured 53 percent of
\nvotes, against 25 percent for the Alliance of Forces for Progress
\n(AFP) and 16 percent for the former ruling Socialist Party.<\/p>\n
\"Tidal wave for Sopi,\" read the headline in Monday's
\nindependent Walfadjiri, while Le Soleil daily said: \"Wade is
\nconfirmed..., Sopi the big winner.\"<\/p>\n
Observers agreed, however, that the victory for the
\npresidential coalition was less an endorsement of the track
\nrecord of Wade's first year in office than an expression of
\ncontinuing hope in the promises of change he made on taking
\noffice.<\/p>\n
Wade has considerable charisma and campaigned tirelessly to
\ngain a majority for his backers, drawing criticism from his
\nrivals for getting involved in the election himself.<\/p>\n
The socialists and other opposition parties focussed their
\ncampaigns on the president's \"amateurism\", lack of experience in
\noffice and his failure to tackle social issues such as high
\nunemployment, an ailing welfare service and big problems in the
\neducational sector.<\/p>",
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