AFRICA/SENEGAL - As the date of presidential elections approaches Catholic and Muslim leaders call for calm and respect for the rules of democracy

Dakar (Agenzia Fides)- Tension grows as the 25 February, the date of presidential and political elections, approaches and Muslim and Catholic religious leaders are calling for calm and respect for the rules of democracy.
Earlier this month Archbishop Théodore-Adrien Sarr, the Catholic archbishop of Dakar, urged opposition parties to cancel a demonstration for which the authorities had refused permission. The Archbishop made his appeal from Cotonou, capital Benin, where he was taking part in celebrations for the Golden Jubilee of Cardinal Bernardin Gantin and also a meeting of the Regional Bishops’ Conference of French-speaking West Africa CERAO (see Fides 5 and 6 February 2007). Archbishop Sarr’s appeal was broadcast by Senegal’s national radio and published by the main national newspapers.
“The Archbishop’s intervention was decisive to convince the Opposition parties to cancel their unauthorised demonstration planned for 2 February” local Church sources told Fides. “This helped to avoid a potential occasion for clashes between demonstrators and the police”.
“In that appeal Archbishop Sarr recalled what the Bishops of Senegal had written on 9 January in a statement on the elections in which they called for the election calendar to be respected and for the election to be calm and peaceful” the sources told Fides.
In fact the Opposition’s demonstration was to call for the election calendar to be respected. “Now that the Interior Ministry has confirmed elections on 25 February and the start of the electoral campaign, I think the opposition can cancel its demonstration” said Archbishop Sarr. “The electoral campaign will be an opportunity for expressing positions. Let us hope the elections will be fair and peaceful”.
Candidates were urged to help ensure a peaceful campaign, by Muslim leader El hadj Moustapha Cissé, coordinator of the Senegal Centre for Religious Intellectuals for Peace and Harmony CCRIPC. His call came after a series of incidents provoked by supports of certain presidential election candidates, in which several people were injured.
One presidential candidate is outgoing 80 year old President Abdoulaye Wade, responsible for turning Senegal into an enormous factory, including the construction of a good telecommunications network. Paradoxically this is having a boomerang effect on President Wade, because the Opposition is using SMS messages to promote its electoral campaign. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 15/2/2007 righe 39 parole 457)