Wade announced the date for the election on 13 April 2006. The election campaign officially began on 4 February 2007. Soldiers voted early on 17 February and 18 February; this was the first time in the country's history that soldiers were allowed to vote.
Had a run-off been necessary, it would have been held on 18 March 2007. A
parliamentary election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
was initially intended to be held on 25 February as well, but it was delayed to 3 June 2007.
Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...
(PS). Former Prime Minister
Moustapha Niasse
Moustapha Niasse (born November 4, 1939 .) is a
ran as the candidate of a coalition of opposition parties, including his own Alliance of the Forces of Progress (AFP). Other candidates included
Ziguinchor
Ziguinchor (; wo, Siggcoor ; ar, زيغينكور) is the capital of the Ziguinchor Region, and the chief town of the Casamance area of Senegal, lying at the mouth of the Casamance River. It has a population of over 230,000 (2007 estimate). I ...
Modou Dia
Modou Dia (born 27 March 1950) is a Senegalese politician and former diplomat. Dia represented Senegal in Saudi Arabia, the Soviet Union, West Germany and Austria. He also was the Senegalese permanent representative to the Organisation of Islamic C ...
.
Campaign
Wade faced criticism over a variety of issues, including unemployment and the continuing Casamance conflict, as well as alleged corruption and the delays of the parliamentary election. Major construction projects undertaken by Wade split opinion in the country. Wade's campaign called for the people to give him a majority of the vote in the first round, but it was widely expected that a second round would be necessary, and Wade's opponents denied the possibility that he could legitimately win a first-round majority. Many politicians who had backed Wade in 2000 had since turned against him, which could be viewed as making it improbable that Wade would do as well in 2007; on the other hand, it has been pointed out that Senegal's demographics, with a high proportion of young people in the electorate, could make it difficult to compare the two elections.
Results
Shortly after the election was held, Prime Minister
Macky Sall
Macky Sall (, wo, Maki Sà ll, fuc, 𞤃𞤢𞤳𞤠𞤅𞤢𞤤‎, italic=no, Maki Sal; born 11 December 1961) is a Senegalese politician who has been President of Senegal since April 2012. He was re-elected President in the first round voti ...
, who was also Wade's campaign manager, said that Wade had won the election in the first round with about 57% of the vote, based on initial results. According to results announced on March 1, Wade won about 1.9 million votes, about 55.9% of the total. Seck was in second place with 14.9% of the vote and Tanor Dieng was in third place with 13.6%. Voter turnout was said to be 70.5%. Wade won the most votes in 32 out of 34 of the country's departments, including a majority in 28 of them. Seck won the department of
Thiès
Thiès (; ar, ثيس, Ṯyass; Noon: ''Chess'') is the third largest city in Senegal with a population officially estimated at 320,000 in 2005. It lies east of Dakar on the N2 road and at the junction of railway lines to Dakar, Bamako and St- ...
and Niasse won the department of Nioro.
Abdoulaye Bathily's campaign rejected the results and alleged that there were flaws in the voting, saying that a person could be registered more than once, and that the ink used in voting, which was supposed to be
indelible
''Indelible'' is the fourth book in the Grant County series by author Karin Slaughter. It was originally released in hardback in 2004. Previous books in the series are '' Blindsighted'', ''Kisscut'', and ''A Faint Cold Fear''. These books star Sa ...
, could be washed off. Ousmane Tanor Dieng's spokesperson also rejected the results, and on March 5 Dieng filed a Constitutional Court appeal regarding alleged lack of transparency and irregularities.
Final results from the Constitutional Council on March 11 gave Wade 55.90%, Seck 14.92%, and Dieng 13.56%. The Council rejected appeals from Dieng and Bathily. Wade was sworn in on April 3 at the
Leopold Sedar Senghor Stadium
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* Leopold (given name)
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* Leopold Bloom, the protagonist o ...
in Dakar, with many African leaders and about 60,000 spectators in attendance."Wade sworn in for second term" AFP (''IOL''), April 3, 2007.