cc E SMacky Sall should be supported, but people should be suspicious and vigilant. He is, after all, Wade's protégé.

Thousands of people are celebrating in the streets of Dakar after preliminary results showed Senegalese opposition candidate Macky Sall has won over Abdoulaye Wade, the incumbent president who sought a third term in office. Sall supporters gathered in the streets of the capital on Monday, chanting, dancing and sounding car horns. Wade conceded election defeat and congratulated Sall, as preliminary results gave an overwhelming lead to his runoff rival.

The electoral campaign has been about interpretation of the constitution, the age of the incumbent, his son’s future, and so on. But the underlying problems of underdevelopment have not been addressed.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) Environmental Politics Institute is an interdisciplinary forum which brings together African scholars undertaking innovative research on topics related to the broad theme of environmental politics. The aim of the Institute is to promote and sustain the development of coherent social sciences engagement with environmental issues in Africa. The Institute will promote research and debates on issues related to environmental politics especially as they relate to democratic decision making in climate change adaptation and mitigation policies and programs on the continent. The Institute will be launched in 2012 and subsequently held annually in Dakar, Senegal.

Senegal's opposition joined forces Sunday in a mass rally to block 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade from landing a third term in office and back challenger Macky Sall. The 12 presidential candidates who fell out of the running in a first round of voting on 26 February have formed a coalition they hope will usher ex-prime minister Sall into power. Wade is facing a stiff battle to retain power at the March 25 poll after a strong opposition showing crushed his hopes of overall victory in the first round and forced him into a run-off.

Senegal opposition candidate Macky Sall has won a major boost in his bid to oust President Abdoulaye Wade in a run-off vote, securing the endorsement of the man who came third in the first round. The west African nation's main opposition movement has also called on its supporters and other failed candidates to rally behind Sall, who will challenge the 85-year-old Wade in the second round election on March 18 or 25. Wade, who has been in power for 12 years, garnered 34.8 per cent of the vote in the first round, but fell humiliatingly short of the majority needed to avoid a run-off.

Numbers can be pretty confusing at election time.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Senegalese authorities to thoroughly investigate recent attacks on the media and ensure that the press is able report freely on the country's presidential election results and potential run-off. In a statement, the media rights group said it had documented at least 12 incidents of threats and physical harm against journalists reporting on the campaign, Sunday's vote, and its aftermath.

It can be argued that the opposition was the main looser in the so-called mediation initiative by former Nigerian President Obasanjo. Obasanjo also kept M23 busy enough to abandon street demonstrations that had become a daily occurrence.

In part II of this two-part special on 2012 Elections in Africa, our SOAS Radio interviews Senegalese artists and activists who discuss the political forecast for heavily contested presidential elections. There has been an uproar about standing President Abdoulaye Wade, 85, seeking a third term even though he initially promised to step down after his second term. The bulk of the opposition voices have been young men, with a politicised musical movement gaining momentum in poor communities throughout the country. Their message? They want change, and they want it NOW.

Votes are being tallied in Senegal in what is shaping up to be a race for the line between Abdoulaye Wade and Macky Sall. Wade's former protégé and prime minister Macky Sall's camp said early results showed the two were 'neck-on-neck' and headed to a second round. Spokesman Jean-Paul Dias said Wade was polling between 34 and 36 per cent, while Sall stood between 32 per cent and 34 per cent. 'The second round could thus take place between Abdoulaye Wade and Macky Sall.'

Voters booed Senegal's president as he went to cast his ballot in elections Sunday, the latest sign of how his decision to seek a third term in office has caused his popularity to plummet and divided a country long considered a model of tolerance. The results issued late Sunday from the polling station where Wade and his family have voted for decades made clear that the aging leader is facing the biggest challenge of his career. Of the 484 votes case at Bureau No. 2 in the Point E neighborhood, Wade received only 102 – not even 22 per cent.

An attempt to strike a pre-election agreement between leaders participating in the Senegalese elections has flopped. Opposition and civil rights groups rejected the African Union mediator’s proposed roadmap, which was intended to forestall likelihood of post election violence in the West country that goes to elections tomorrow. The roadmap proposed a two year term for President Abdoulaye Wade if he garnered an outright victory in the first round. Mr Wade, according to the rejected proposal, would then be succeeded by a government of national unity with a mandate to reform laws and institutions, plus establish an acceptable agenda for the country’s political future.

Senegalese Human Rights League (LSDH) and the Senegalese section of Amnesty International (AI) have again denounced the practice of torture in the country, following the death of another student. Both organisations accused the police of having 'inflicted cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment on the student Ousseynou Seck until death'. The statement said the student, who was reportedly arrested and taken to a police station, during protests against the candidacy of President Abdoulaye Wade ahead of Sunday's election, reportedly died a few hours after his release.

There is no way President Wade can hang on to power for very long. Chances are the politicians will work out some deal.

Senegalese riot police fired volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets at stone-throwing demonstrators after prayers at a mosque in Dakar on Sunday, in fresh violence a week before presidential elections. Rescue workers took away one man who was unconscious after being hit by a rubber bullet, an Agence France-Presse journalist witnessed. It was the latest violence in days of urban clashes between police and protesters trying to defy a ban and hold demonstrations against 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade's plan to run for a third term in office.

Police are detaining leading Senegalese rappers Simon and Kilifeu as nationwide protests continue to rock the West African state. The security personnel Friday fired tear gas as well as rubber bullets to disperse pro-opposition demonstrators, comprised mainly of rappers called Y en a marre (enough of it). Simon and Kilifeu were arrested after they managed to surface in the city centre at the head of dozens of their colleagues, after they bypassed several points manned by armed riot police.

As the body count rises from the conflict between members of the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) and the Senegalese army, Casamancais are starting to lose hope that they will ever see a path to peace. The latest in a string of killings by rebels took place on 14 and 15 February in Sindian (near the Gambian border 100km north of the Casamance capital Ziguinchor), when four Senegalese soldiers were killed and nine wounded in clashes with the MFDC during a Senegalese army search mission for MFDC fighters and bases. Casualty numbers on the MFDC side are unknown.

Senegal's police on Tuesday 14 February blocked youths from settling in a square in Dakar where they planned a permanent sit-in to protest President Abdoulaye Wade's bid to run for a third term in February polls. Scores of police were deployed on and around Obelisk Square, preventing members of rapper-led youth movement 'Fed Up' from gathering for their protest.

Human-rights groups in Senegal, including the local branch of the UK-based Amnesty International, have condemned police violence during an opposition rally in which one person was killed. Officers used tear gas and water cannons to break up the protest in the capital, Dakar, on Tuesday night, attended by an estimated 10,000 people in what until now had been one of Africa's most stable countries.