Africa Business

The Senegalese opposition on Monday said it had won a “comfortable” majority in legislative elections, shortly after President Macky Sall’s ruling coalition also claimed victory.

“We won 30 departments” out of the 46 in the west African country and overseas constituencies, Aminata Toure, head of the presidential coalition, told reporters late Sunday.

“This undoubtedly gives us a majority in the National Assembly.” 

“We have given a majority in the National Assembly to our coalition president,” Sall, she added, without giving the number of seats won by her camp or whether it was an absolute or relative majority.

Toure however acknowledged her coalition had been defeated in the capital, Dakar.

But on Monday the main opposition coalition expressed “astonishment” at Toure’s remarks, claiming the presidential camp was “looking to once again confiscate the vote by the Senegalese who have just given a comfortable majority in the National Assembly to the Yewwi Wallu inter-coalition”.

It also failed to specify the number of seats or what kind of majority it was claiming.

“We call on national and international opinion to act as witnesses against any attempt to manipulate the results,” the opposition said in a statement.

The opposition had hoped the elections would impose a cohabitation, or divided government, on Sall and curb any ambitions he may have for a third term.

Sunday’s polls were an important test for Sall after local elections in March saw the opposition win in major cities, including Dakar, Ziguinchor in the south and Thies in the west.

Initial indications were that the poll was close and that the main opposition coalition gained ground, particularly in urban areas, according to local media.

– Opposition collaboration –

The single round of voting will decide the 165 seats of the single-chamber parliament — currently controlled by the president’s supporters — for the next five years.

Sall has promised to appoint a prime minister — a position he abolished and then restored in December 2021 — from the winning camp.

Some seven million Senegalese were eligible to vote in the election, which passed without any major incidents.

Turnout at several polling stations appeared relatively low, according to AFP correspondents and observers, and the interior ministry said the participation rate was 47 percent.

Provisional overall results are expected no later than Friday, but local media and the main political parties have been counting some of the results since Sunday evening.

“I hope… there are no disputes,” said Lamine Sylva, a 60-year-old artist who voted at a school in Mbao, near Dakar.

“It’s like football — there is a winner and a loser.”

Yahya Sall, a retired soldier, said he hoped the new parliament “will have a strong opposition presence… to advance democracy”.

The national election commission has deployed 22,000 observers nationwide. Experts from the regional ECOWAS bloc were also present.

Lawmakers are elected according to a system that combines proportional representation, with national lists for 53 lawmakers, and majority voting in the country’s departments for 97 others.

The diaspora elects the remaining 15 members of parliament.

This year, eight coalitions are in the running, including Yewwi Askan Wi (“Liberate the People” in Wolof), the main opposition coalition headed by former presidential candidate Ousmane Sonko, who came third in the 2019 presidential election.

Ahead of the poll, Yewwi Askan Wi joined forces with Wallu Senegal (“Save Senegal”), led by former president Abdoulaye Wade.

The two groups agreed to work together to obtain a parliamentary majority and “force governmental cohabitation”.

– Rising prices –

The vote took place against a backdrop of rising prices, partly because of the Ukraine war.

The opposition has questioned the priorities of the government, which has highlighted its subsidies for oil products and food as well as infrastructure building. 

“Is the priority of the Senegalese to build beautiful stadiums, new highways while people are not eating?” Sonko said after casting his ballot in Ziguinchor.

Sall, 60, was elected in 2012 for seven years then re-elected in 2019 for another five. He has been accused of wanting to break the two-term limit and run again in 2024.

He has remained vague on the subject, but any defeat of his supporters in Sunday’s vote could upset such plans.

The 21-day election campaign passed in a mostly calm atmosphere.

The pre-campaign period, however, was marked by violent demonstrations that left at least three people dead after several members of the main opposition coalition, including Sonko, were banned from taking part.

On June 29, the opposition eased tensions by agreeing to take part in the elections, which it had threatened to boycott.

Weightlifter Cyrille Tchatchet II is aiming for Commonwealth Games glory in his “home town” of Birmingham after a compelling journey since he competed in Glasgow in 2014.

The 27-year-old is lifting for England after receiving his citizenship earlier this year. Eight years ago he disappeared at the Glasgow Commonwealths having represented Cameroon, his country of birth.

In between, he competed for the refugee team at last year’s delayed Tokyo Olympics, where he finished 10th. He was also the flag bearer for the team.

“I was homeless. Then I was a refugee. Now I am a proud British citizen,” he told the Daily Mail.

What would make a medal in the 96kg category even more special is the role host city Birmingham has played in his life.

“Birmingham is the first place where I settled, the first place that felt like home for me in the United Kingdom,” he told The Times.

“Birmingham saw me during my very difficult moments (he was in a hostel for asylum seekers) and I would be very happy for Birmingham to see me stepping on that podium and winning a medal for Team England.”

Tchatchet II lives in Walsall, just north of the city. He works as a senior mental health practitioner.       

He has never revealed why he fled the athletes’ village in Glasgow — he told The Times last week it was linked to “blackmail” — with just his backpack, containing his weightlifting shoes and belt.

“It was a very difficult experience,” he told AFP last year, ahead of the Olympics. “I had to escape. I was very young, very scared. I didn’t think much about the future.”

– ‘I didn’t give up’ –

Tchatchet II ended up homeless for two months, scraping an existence in the sout-coast city of Brighton — haunted by suicidal thoughts.

“I was sleeping under this bridge,” he told the Daily Mail. “I used to feed on biscuits. With the little money I had, I used to buy custard creams from (supermarket) Lidl.

“I was very lonely. I felt useless. I thought about the previous months when I was competing for my country. Now I found myself in a very vulnerable position.”

He admits he considered taking his own life.

“I was just depressed,” he said. “I couldn’t really see a way out. I used to stare at the sea, day in, day out.

“I felt like I just wanted to jump in the sea and see what happened.

“I went to the top of the road one day and was just thinking about something that would be quick.”

Tchatchet II, who took up weightlifting after seeing a photograph of an uncle lifting weights, was saved by the Samaritans, a charity supporting those in emotional distress.

The Samaritans alerted the police, who got him off the streets into detention centres, which he says were more like a “prison.”

He faced a couple of turbulent years while he waited for his asylum application to be processed but he was granted refugee status in 2016 and went on to gain a first-class degree in mental health nursing.

“In Cameroon, depression isn’t even a thing. If you have schizophrenia, they’ll probably say you have witchcraft, got into a sect, or paying for a bad thing you’ve done,” he told AFP.

“Even here (in Britain), there’s always that stigma: ‘You’re a man, you shouldn’t have depression.’ We need to change our mindsets. It can affect anyone.”

On Monday he will go through his eve-of-competition ritual of eating celery and having a hot bath — a far cry from those dark days under the bridge.

“I’ve had a difficult journey,” he told The Times. “I’m still training, I didn’t give up.”

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has suggested that his country, Africa’s largest natural gas exporter, could join the BRICS economic group that includes Russia and China.

Tebboune’s comment comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin — whose country is hit with Western sanctions over its Ukraine invasion — in June called on BRICS leaders to move towards “formation of a truly multipolar system of inter-government relations”.

The BRICS group also includes the major emerging economies of Brazil, India and South Africa.

“The BRICS interest us” as an alternative to traditional power centres, Tebboune said in a televised interview late Sunday. “They constitute an economic and political force.”

He underlined that there was no need to “get ahead of things” but promised “good news”.

The president added that his North African country meets “a good part” of the economic criteria for joining the bloc.

BRICS members currently account for nearly a quarter of the world’s gross domestic product.

Tebboune participated in a BRICS virtual summit at the end of June, when Putin called on leaders of the group to cooperate in the face of “selfish actions” from the West.

Sanctions over Ukraine have pushed Putin to seek new markets and strengthen ties with countries in Africa and Asia.

Algiers abstained when the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution in March demanding Russia immediately withdraw from Ukraine.

China, India and South Africa also abstained.

On a visit to Algeria in May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said trade between his country and Algeria had reached $3 billion last year.

The helicopter lands in the middle of rice fields, heralding the arrival of Kenyan presidential candidate William Ruto as he seeks votes from the densely populated, politically influential heartland of Mount Kenya.

Located in the centre of the country and flanked by an extinct volcano that gives the vast region its name, Mount Kenya has long played a key role in presidential elections and this year is no exception.

As the underdog in the August 9 election, where he will face Raila Odinga, a veteran opposition politician who now has the backing of the ruling Jubilee party, Ruto and his team know that winning Mount Kenya is essential.

The 55-year-old has vowed to lift millions of Kenyans out of poverty, making “bottom-up” economic growth a major plank of his campaign. 

At the rally in Kirinyaga country, Nancy Njeri, a 78-year-old rice farmer, told AFP he had her vote.

“Ruto will bring changes in education, youth employment, he will ensure we have fertiliser to grow our rice, and many more things,” she said.

Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru predicted a huge victory for Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party in the region, telling AFP that he is “someone who is accepted by the people of Mount Kenya.”

“He has done a lot of groundwork in that regard,” the UDA politician said. 

Ruto, a businessman from the Kalenjin tribe who is currently serving as Kenya’s deputy president, was originally slated to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Instead, he found himself banished to the sidelines after his boss struck a deal with arch-rival Odinga.

Embittered but ambitious, Ruto launched a new party and began laying the foundation for his candidacy, focusing in particular on the region which is perhaps most representative of the complex politics that govern Kenya.

– Sacred Kikuyu land – 

It was a long shot for the Kalenjin leader, at least on paper.

Mount Kenya is the sacred land of the Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest ethnic group, who believe that God lives in the snow-capped volcano they call Kirinyaga. 

The fertile region, home to mango orchards and coffee plantations, also occupies a hallowed place in Kenyan history — the Mau Mau rebellion against the British Empire began here in 1952.

“From that time (onwards) there is this sense of entitlement that the Kikuyus have always had,” said analyst Herman Manyora, who favours Odinga.

Nearly six decades after independence in 1963, Mount Kenya continues to be at the heart of Kenyan politics.

Three of the country’s four presidents — Jomo Kenyatta, his son Uhuru, and Mwai Kibaki — are Kikuyu.

The economically powerful community has always backed its own people — a widespread phenomenon in Kenya, where the tribal vote has played a big role in previous elections.

Politicians have also exploited ethnic divides to deadly effect in 2007-2008, when Kenya witnessed a vicious bout of post-poll violence that pitted mainly Kikuyus against Luos and Kalenjins, leaving more than 1,100 dead.

But this year, Kikuyus — who account for around six million of Kenya’s 22 million voters — will have to choose between Ruto, a Kalenjin and Odinga, a Luo.

The alliance between Kenyatta and Odinga has ruffled feathers in Mount Kenya, where some have turned on their former leader, accusing him of abandoning “kihoto” (the Kikuyu concept of justice) by sidelining his deputy.

“We as the Kikuyus cannot be told who to support, Uhuru is a traitor,” George Mwaura, a 38-year-old motorcycle taxi driver, said at the Kirinyaga rally.

– The ‘Martha effect’ – 

But Odinga’s team insists that the 77-year-old will win a majority in the region, pointing to the selection of Kikuyu lawyer Martha Karua as his running mate.

The choice of Karua, a former justice minister nicknamed the “iron lady”, has “energised and excited the mountain”, said David Murathe, a prominent Kikuyu and vice-chairman of the Jubilee party.

Ruto’s running mate Rigathi Gachagua is also a Kikuyu who once served as Kenyatta’s personal aide, but Murathe said he lacked Karua’s credentials as a key player in Kenya’s pro-democracy movement.

Even accounting for a worst-case scenario, the Odinga-Karua ticket could expect to secure at least 60 percent of Mount Kenya’s votes, Murathe told AFP.

“I would not be surprised if Ruto gets the shock of his life” when the results are announced, he said.

Academic Macharia Munene also testified to the presence of the “Martha effect”, telling AFP: “There was a time it appeared to be all Ruto, about six-seven months ago.

“It’s declining, that overwhelming support. It’s been eroded,” he said.

“Whether the erosion is big enough to turn the tables is another matter.”

In the basement of the National Library of Tunis, conservator Hasna Gabsi combs through shelves of newspapers dating back to the mid-19th century to select the latest to digitise.

She picks out a yellowed copy of an Arabic-language newspaper printed in the 1880s, then walks to the sections containing French, Italian, Maltese and Spanish-language newspapers published in Tunisia.

“The archive is a witness to an important, historical culture,” Gabsi said under the flickering neon lights.

The library’s collection includes some 16,000 titles printed in Tunisia — numbering hundreds of thousands of editions of newspapers and periodicals.

As part of a campaign to preserve the country’s archives, the library staff have been working to digitise the documents.

Most of the newspapers are in Arabic, with the oldest from the mid-19th century when Tunisia was an Ottoman province.

After France occupied Tunisia in 1881, European settlers published periodicals in several languages, including French, Italian, Spanish and Maltese.

Some publications are even in Judeo-Arabic, a local Arabic dialect written in the Hebrew alphabet.

Gabsi selects a copy of Voix d’Israel, a Hebrew-language newspaper printed by Tunisia’s Jewish community, which numbered around 100,000 when the country gained independence from France in 1956.

Further along the shelves, she picks out L’Unione, published in 1886 by an Italian community that would number some 130,000 by the middle of the following century.

Nearby, technicians use huge scanners to digitise the newspapers and other documents, which have been made available to the public online since May.

The library’s director Raja Ben Slama has brought together a team of around 20 employees to accelerate the process.

She said the importance of preserving the newspapers was clear to her when she arrived in 2015.

“We are in a race against time with the elements against the deterioration of the periodicals,” she said.

Some of them “can’t be found anywhere else”, she added.

Many of the publications have disappeared, particularly those published in Italian, Hebrew and Maltese.

Economic woes and tensions sparked by the Arab-Israeli conflict led to the departure of most of the country’s Jewish community, while most Italians left in the years after independence.

For historian Abdessattar Amamou, the archives are rare in the region, reflecting the “mosaic” of different communities that were present in the North African country.

“At the dawn of independence, we were three million people — but with that came a huge richness on the level of the press,” Amamou added.

President Macky Sall’s ruling coalition claimed victory in Senegal’s legislative elections but the opposition rejected the assertion as a “prefabricated majority”.

“We won 30 departments” out of the 46 in the west African country and overseas constituencies, Aminata Toure, head of the presidential coalition, told reporters late Sunday.

“This undoubtedly gives us a majority in the National Assembly.” 

“We have given a majority in the National Assembly to our coalition president”, Sall, she added, without giving the number of seats won by her camp or whether it was an absolute or relative majority.

Toure however acknowledged her coalition had been defeated in the capital Dakar in Sunday’s vote.

The opposition was swift in rejecting Toure’s claims.

Barthelemy Dias, a leader of the main opposition coalition headed by former presidential candidate Ousmane Sonko, spoke of “vulgar lies” and a “prefabricated majority” on private radio RFM.

“Cohabitation is inevitable. You lost this election at the national level. We will not accept it. This abuse will not pass,” said Dias, who is also the mayor of Dakar.

The opposition had hoped the elections would impose a cohabitation, or divided government, on Sall and curb any ambitions he may have for a third term.

Sunday’s polls were an important test for Sall after local elections in March saw the opposition win in major cities, including Dakar, Ziguinchor in the south and Thies in the west.

The single round of voting will decide the 165 seats of the single-chamber parliament — currently controlled by the president’s supporters — for the next five years.

Sall has promised to appoint a prime minister — a position he abolished and then restored in December 2021 — from the winning camp.

– Opposition collaboration –

Some seven million Senegalese were eligible to vote in the election, which passed without any major incidents.

Turnout at several polling stations appeared relatively low, according to AFP correspondents and observers, and the interior ministry said participation had reached 22 percent by 1 pm.

Provisional overall results are expected no later than Friday.

“I hope… there are no disputes,” said Lamine Sylva, a 60-year-old artist who voted at a school in Mbao, near Dakar.

“It’s like football — there is a winner and a loser.”

Yahya Sall, a retired soldier, said he hoped the new parliament “will have a strong opposition presence… to advance democracy”.

The national election commission has deployed 22,000 observers nationwide. Experts from the regional ECOWAS bloc were also present.

Lawmakers are elected according to a system that combines proportional representation, with national lists for 53 lawmakers, and majority voting in the country’s departments for 97 others.

The diaspora elects the remaining 15 members of parliament.

This year, eight coalitions are in the running, including Yewwi Askan Wi (“Liberate the People” in Wolof), the main opposition coalition of Sonko, which came third in the 2019 presidential election.

But he and other members of the coalition were banned from running in Sunday’s elections on technical grounds.

Ahead of the poll, Yewwi Askan Wi joined forces with Wallu Senegal (“Save Senegal”), led by former president Abdoulaye Wade.

The two groups agreed to work together to obtain a parliamentary majority and “force governmental cohabitation”.

– Rising prices –

The vote took place against a backdrop of rising prices, in part because of the war in Ukraine.

The opposition has questioned the priorities of the government, which has highlighted its subsidies for oil products and food as well as infrastructure building. 

“Is the priority of the Senegalese to build beautiful stadiums, new highways while people are not eating?” Sonko said after casting his ballot in Ziguinchor.

The opposition also wants to force Sall to give up any hope of running for a third term. 

Sall, 60, was elected in 2012 for seven years then re-elected in 2019 for another five. He has been accused of wanting to break the two-term limit and run again in 2024.

He has remained vague on the subject, but any defeat of his supporters in Sunday’s vote could upset such plans.

“If Macky Sall loses them (the legislative elections), he will no longer talk about a third term,” Sonko said.

The 21-day election campaign passed in a mostly calm atmosphere.

The pre-campaign period, however, was marked by violent demonstrations that left at least three people dead after several members of the main opposition coalition, including Sonko, were banned from taking part.

On June 29, the opposition eased tensions by agreeing to take part in the elections, which it had threatened to boycott.

Athletics gets underway at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Tuesday at the refurbished 30,000 capacity Alexander Stadium.

However, due to the closeness of the world championships and a Diamond League meeting in Poland next Saturday there are doubts over several stars appearing.

AFP Sport picks out five who appear to be certain starters:   

MEN

Ferdinand Omanyala (KEN) — 100m

The African 100 metres champion could gain compensation at the Games after his world title challenge was shattered by only obtaining a visa to enter the United States at the last minute.

The 26-year-old bowed out in the semi-finals but said he had no regrets and was looking forward to competing in Birmingham.

“The challenge of life is intended to make you better, not bitter,” he tweeted.

“Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems. No matter how much falls on us, we keep moving.”  

Jake Wightman (SCO) — 1500m

One of the surprises of the world championships when he took gold in a race being commentated on in the stadium by his father and coach Geoff.

The 28-year-old became Britain’s first 1500m world champion since Steve Cram in 1983 and is keen to use it as a springboard for Commonwealth gold and then the European 800m crown in Munich later this month.

“It’s crazy. The time frame between coming back from the worlds and then going into the Commonwealths,” he said.

“It’ll be tough to kind of get myself back up, which is why I need to let myself chill out for a few days to get ready for the tough rounds again and get back into that championship environment.”

Emmanuel Korir (KEN) — 400m

The 27-year-old is the undoubted king of the 800m having added world gold to his Olympic crown.

Eyebrows may be raised as to why he would not attempt to make it a triple of 800m titles in Birmingham.

However, he is extremely confident in his abilities at 400m. He said after the world final that he knew he would win as with a slow first lap he was the best 400m runner in the field.

A further aid to his hopes is he is pretty fresh having only started his season at the end of June. 

WOMEN

Keely Hodgkinson (ENG) — 800m

The 20-year-old should be the hottest of favourites to be crowned Commonwealth Games champion. She took silver in last year’s Olympics behind Athing Mu and then lost out by the barest of margins (0.08sec) to the American in the world final.

That defeat left her bristling. 

“I’m definitely a little bit annoyed,” she said. “I have a lot of respect for her but I’m obviously gutted. I came here to win the gold and it didn’t happen.”

After her silver in Tokyo, Hodgkinson, who has put studying for a criminology degree on hold, was rewarded by a sponsor with a spin in an Aston Martin.

She felt that her Eugene performance did not merit a repeat but gold in Birmingham should be good enough for a second outing.  

Kelsey-Lee Barber (AUS) — Javelin

The 30-year-old seemed set fair to finally land a Commonwealth Games gold — having taken bronze and silver in the last two editions — after she retained her world title.

The Olympic bronze medallist, though, contracted Covid-19 shortly after her world triumph but the team insisted she would make it to Birmingham.

Barber can take heart that her compatriot Jessica Stenson finally won the marathon title on Saturday despite having Covid less than a month before the Games.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was “outraged” after two people were killed and several others injured when UN peacekeepers opened fire during an incident in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on the Uganda border on Sunday.

The UN force MONUSCO, admitted that some of its peacekeepers had opened fire “for unexplained reasons”, adding that arrests had already been made.  

Guterres was “saddened and dismayed” to learn of the shooting, a UN statement said.

“The Secretary-General stresses in the strongest terms the need to establish accountability for these events.

“He welcomes the decision of his special representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to detain the MONUSCO personnel involved in the incident and to immediately open an investigation,” it added.

Video of the incident, shared on social media showed men, at least one in police uniform and another in army uniform, advancing towards the immobilised UN convoy behind a closed barrier in Kasindi. 

The town is in eastern DR Congo’s Beni territory on the border with Uganda. 

After a verbal exchange, the peacekeepers appeared to open fire before opening the barrier and driving through while people scattered or hid.

“During this incident, soldiers from the intervention brigade of the MONUSCO force returning from leave opened fire at the border post for unexplained reasons and forced their way through,” the UN mission in Kasindi said in a statement earlier on Sunday.

“This serious incident caused loss of life and serious injuries.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo “strongly condemns and deplores this unfortunate incident in which two compatriots died and 15 others were injured according to a provisional roll,” government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in a statement.

– ‘Shocked and dismayed’ –

The government said it launched an investigation with MONUSCO to establish who was responsible, why the shooting took place and would ensure “severe penalties” are given.

The UN envoy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bintou Keita, said she was “deeply shocked and dismayed by this serious incident”, according to the mission’s statement. 

“In the face of this unspeakable and irresponsible behaviour, the perpetrators of the shooting have been identified and arrested pending the conclusions of the investigation which has already begun in collaboration with the Congolese authorities,” MONUSCO said.

The UN mission said the troops’ home countries had been contacted so legal action could be commenced promptly, with the involvement of witnesses and survivors, which could lead to exemplary penalties. 

– Deadly region –

Earlier Barthelemy Kambale Siva, the North Kivu governor’s representative in Kasindi, said that “eight people, including two policemen who were working at the barrier, were seriously injured” in the incident.

Kambale Siva, interviewed by AFP, did not say why the UN convoy had been prevented from crossing.

There are more than 120 militias operating in the DRC’s troubled east. The UN first deployed an observer mission to the region in 1999. 

In 2010, it became the peacekeeping mission MONUSCO — the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — with a mandate to conduct offensive operations.

There have been 230 fatalities among the force, according to the UN.

– Calls for UN forces to leave –

Last week, deadly demonstrations demanding the departure of the United Nations took place in several towns in eastern DRC. 

A total of 19 people, including three peacekeepers, were killed.

Anger has been fuelled by perceptions that MONUSCO is failing to do enough to stop attacks by the armed groups.

UN under-secretary-general for peace operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix was in the central African country on Saturday to “talk to the Congolese authorities”, he said.

“(They would) examine ways in which we can both avoid a recurrence of these tragic incidents and, above all, work better together to achieve our objectives,” he said.

“We hope that the conditions will be met, in particular the return of state authority, so that MONUSCO can complete its mission as soon as possible. And to leave room for other forms of international support.”

Senegal on Sunday voted in parliamentary elections the opposition hopes will force a coalition with President Macky Sall and curb any ambitions he may have for a third term.

Sixty-year-old Sall, who was elected in 2012 for seven years then re-elected in 2019 for another five, has been accused of wanting to break the two-term limit and run again in 2024.

He has remained vague on the subject, but any defeat of his supporters in Sunday’s vote could upset such plans.

Polling stations opened at 0800 GMT and began closing at 1800 GMT for the single round of voting in which some seven million Senegalese are eligible to vote.

The voting continued calmly throughout the day.

Partial results are expected later Sunday with provisional overall figures to be given no later than Friday.

By midday (1200 GMT), turnout had reached 22 percent, a source close to the interior ministry in charge of the elections told AFP.

Turnout at several polling stations appeared relatively low, according to AFP correspondents and observers. 

In Scat Urbam, a suburb near Dakar, far fewer voters than in past polls were waiting to cast their ballots. 

The situation was the same in the capital’s working-class district of Grand Medine as well as in Ziguinchor, capital of the southern region of Casamance, according to AFP journalists. 

– Rising prices –

At the start of voting in the courtyard of a school in Mbao, near Dakar, around 100 mostly elderly people were preparing to vote. Police were also on hand to ensure security, an AFP journalist said.

“I hope voting day goes off peacefully and there are no disputes,” said Lamine Sylva, a 60-year-old artist.

“It’s like football — there is a winner and a loser.”

Yahya Sall, a retired soldier, said he hoped the new parliament “will have a strong opposition presence… to advance democracy”.

The national election commission has deployed 22,000 observers nationwide.

The ballot will decide the 165 seats of the single-chamber parliament — currently controlled by the president’s supporters — for the next five years.

Lawmakers are elected according to a system that combines proportional representation, with national lists for 53 lawmakers, and majority voting in the country’s departments for 97 others.

The diaspora elects the remaining 15 members of parliament.

This year, eight coalitions are in the running, including Yewwi Askan Wi (“Liberate the People” in Wolof), the main opposition coalition.

Its highest-profile member, Ousmane Sonko, came third in the 2019 presidential election.

But he and other members of the coalition were banned from running in Sunday’s elections on technical grounds.

The vote took place against a backdrop of rising prices, in part because of the war in Ukraine.

The opposition has questioned the priorities of the government, which has highlighted its subsidies for oil products and food as well as infrastructure building. 

“Is the priority of the Senegalese to build beautiful stadiums, new highways while people are not eating?” Sonko said after casting his ballot in Ziguinchor. 

Raising the alarm over reports of low turnout, he called on voters to vote in numbers “to balance the powers”.

Sall said that “beyond our individual choices, there is everything we share and must preserve as a united and supportive nation”. 

“It’s peace, stability, security, territorial integrity of our country and national cohesion,” added Sall as he voted in Fatick, 150 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of Dakar. He also praised the organisation of the election.

– Opposition collaboration –

Ahead of the poll, Yewwi Askan Wi joined forces with Wallu Senegal (“Save Senegal”), led by former president Abdoulaye Wade.

The two groups agreed to work together to obtain a parliamentary majority and “force governmental cohabitation”.

They also want to force Sall to give up any hope of running again for president in 2024. 

“If Macky Sall loses them (the legislative elections), he will no longer talk about a third term,” Sonko said. 

In local elections in March, the opposition won in major cities, including the capital Dakar, Ziguinchor in the south and Thies in the west.

Sonko and other members of the Yewwi Askan Wi coalition were forbidden from running in Sunday’s elections, after the authorities in early June tossed out its national list of candidates on technical grounds.

One of the names had been accidentally put down both as a first-choice candidate and as an alternate candidate, thus invalidating the entire list.

That sparked violent demonstrations that left at least three people dead.

On June 29, the opposition finally agreed to take part in the elections, easing tensions.

mrb-amt/pvh/raz

Two people were killed and several others injured after UN peacekeepers opened fire during an incident in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on the Uganda border on Sunday.

The UN force MONUSCO, admitted that some of its peacekeepers had opened fire “for unexplained reasons”, adding that arrests had already been made.  

Video of the incident, shared on social media showed men, at least one in police uniform and another in army uniform, advancing towards the immobilised UN convoy behind a closed barrier in Kasindi. The town is in eastern DR Congo’s Beni territory on the border with Uganda. 

After a verbal exchange, the peacekeepers appeared to open fire before opening the barrier and driving through while people scattered or hid.

“During this incident, soldiers from the intervention brigade of the MONUSCO force returning from leave opened fire at the border post for unexplained reasons and forced their way through,” the UN mission in Kasindi said in a statement. “This serious incident caused loss of life and serious injuries.” 

“The toll is two dead,” Joel Kitausa, a civil society leader in Kasindi, told AFP, adding that 14 people were injured in the incident.

– ‘Shocked and dismayed’ –

The UN envoy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bintou Keita, said she was “deeply shocked and dismayed by this serious incident”, according to the mission’s statement. 

“In the face of this unspeakable and irresponsible behaviour, the perpetrators of the shooting have been identified and arrested pending the conclusions of the investigation which has already begun in collaboration with the Congolese authorities,” MONUSCO said.

The UN mission said the troops’ home countries had been contacted so legal action could be commenced promptly, with the involvement of witnesses and survivors, which could lead to exemplary penalties. 

– Deadly region –

Earlier Barthelemy Kambale Siva, the North Kivu governor’s representative in Kasindi, said that “eight people, including two policemen who were working at the barrier, were seriously injured” in the incident.

Kambale Siva, interviewed by AFP, did not give a reason for why the UN convoy was prevented from crossing.

There are more than 120 militias operating in the DRC’s troubled east. The UN first deployed an observer mission to the region in 1999. 

In 2010, it became the peacekeeping mission MONUSCO — the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — with a mandate to conduct offensive operations.

There have been 230 fatalities among the force, according to the UN.

– Calls for UN forces to leave –

Last week, deadly demonstrations demanding the departure of the United Nations took place in several towns in eastern DRC. 

A total of 19 people, including three peacekeepers, were killed.

Anger has been fuelled by perceptions that MONUSCO is failing to do enough to stop attacks by the armed groups.

UN under-secretary-general for peace operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix was in the central African country on Saturday to “talk to the Congolese authorities”, he said.

“(They would) examine ways in which we can both avoid a recurrence of these tragic incidents and, above all, work better together to achieve our objectives,” he said.

“We hope that the conditions will be met, in particular the return of state authority, so that MONUSCO can complete its mission as soon as possible. And to leave room for other forms of international support.”