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

"I wish to tell Wade that everyone is watching Senegal. He needs to make sure that the vote is extremely transparent," international pop star Youssou N'dour was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. Mr. N’dour had planned to run against Wade but was disqualified on a technicality by the constitutional court. "We will not accept for someone to twist our ballot."

Leading the African Union’s observer mission, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo appealed to Senegalese to “avoid all forms of violence during the election” and to “consolidate the democratic achievements of Senegal.”

Johnnie Carson, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs who also observed the Senegalese elections on Sunday, praised the orderliness of polling stations. But the US government has been critical of Wade’s decision to, in the words of the US ambassador Daniel Lukens, “put the security of his country in peril by insisting on seeking a third mandate.”

Now, all eyes turn to Wade’s chief opponent, Macky Sall, who was once a Wade protégé.

With initial results showing Mr. Sall in a tight race with Wade, Sall predicted that a runoff elections was “inevitable.”

"The figures in our possession, published in the media, and the trends from polling stations show that a second round is inevitable,” Sall said in a statement published on his website, according to the Agence France Presse.

"We have won the biggest departments in the country. We have won in each of the four departments in the Dakar region. I warn the sorcerer's apprentices against any attempt to confiscate the people's will. The massive rejection of the outgoing president has been shown in the results."

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