By Osagie Alonge
Senegalese singer-songwriter Youssou N’Dour has been disqualified from running for president in the forthcoming 2012 Senegalese elections. N’Dour had announced his intention to run a few weeks ago.
Reports say the ruling was made by a Constitutional Council which was appointed by the current president Abdoulaye Wade, who, interestingly, has been cleared to run for a third presidential term. The council has also turned down an appeal by the music icon against its rejection of his candidacy on the basis that he had not ‘provided enough supporting signatures’.
Citizens are now ready to stage a street protest against the controversial third term bid.
‘Abdoulaye Wade has declared war on the people’, Amath Dansakho, the head of the PIT party and member of a broader opposition group called the June 23 Movement (M23), told reporters at a press conference
M23 argues that the constitution allows a president to serve only two consecutive terms, but Wade says the applicable law, amended in 2008, does not apply retroactively and cannot take into account his previous two terms.
