Elections may go to runoff in Senegal, West Africa's stablest democracy (+video)

Senegal’s presidential elections appears to be headed for a runoff, opening up a period of potential unrest in West Africa's stablest democracy.

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With 10 percent of the ballots counted, President Abdoulaye Wade is estimated to have won just 24 percent of the vote, with his nearest competitor in a field of 13 candidates having won 21 percent. According to Senegalese law, a presidential candidate must win more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff election.

It’s far from the crushing victory that President Wade predicted and reflects the divisions he unleashed by running for a third term after promising to serve only two. A runoff, if handled well, could bring settlement to that dispute. But any runoff would put democracy to the test in Senegal, the one country in the region never to have had a military coup d'etat.

Overall, the vote on Sunday appeared to be peaceful and orderly across the country. But as Wade cast his vote in Dakar, he was booed by crowds at the polling station, the BBC reported. Some Senegalese shouted, “Get out, old man,” while others chanted: “Go away Wade.”

President Wade came to power promising to help turn Senegal into West Africa’s Singapore, and during his tenure, the country has experienced 4 percent growth rates, higher literacy rates, and increased life spans. It has also attracted an influx of foreign investors and French banks. What makes this influx all the more remarkable is the fact that Senegal is not an oil-rich economy, like Nigeria, or rich in natural resources such as gold, like Ivory Coast and Ghana. As the Wall Street Journal's reporter, Drew Hinshaw writes, Senegal’s main attraction is its stability and its relatively large educated work force.

Wade remains popular for these achievements in many parts of the country, but for urban youths – 30 percent of whom remain unemployed even in these prosperous times – Wade is the man to blame for their sorrows.

Following a Constitutional Court decision, allowing Wade to run for a third term, heavy protests broke out in the capital city of Dakar. Police dispersed the crowds with tear gas, truncheons, and rubber bullets, and six people were killed. Youth activists promised to make the country “ungovernable” if Wade won the election, and opposition candidates said protests would continue if it appeared there were any irregularities in how votes were tallied.

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