Senegal's Wade claims ahead in presidential vote

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

DAKAR (AFP) — Senegal's veteran President Abdoulaye Wade claimed Sunday he was ahead in a hotly-contested presidential vote in one of Africa's most stable democracies.

Abdou Aziz Sow, electoral campaign spokesman for the octogenarian, said Wade had garnered 55 percent of ballots of the at least 60 percent of the votes counted.

The results were not officially confirmed.

Voters in Senegal thronged polling stations Sunday as Wade voiced confidence that he would win a second and final term in power in a poll see as a test case of the country's long-held reputation of democracy.

Voting was extended by several hours due to late delivery of polling material in some areas and a massive voter turn-out in some of the more than 11,000 polling stations scattered...