ECOWAS Observers return for Senegal's presidential runoff

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The ECOWAS Observation Mission to Sunday's presidential runoff in Senegal arrived in the country on Tuesday, the ECOWAS Commission said in a statement made available to PANA here.
  
Former Togolese Prime Minister Koffi Sama, who headed a 150-member ECOWAS mission to the first round presidential elections in Senegal on 26 February, is also leading this mission of 100 observers.

They include ECOWAS Ambassadors accredited to Nigeria and Senegal, members of the Council of the Wise, West African parliamentarians, legal and electoral experts, including those trained by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra, Ghana, as well as representatives of electoral commissions of ECOWAS Member States and non-governmental organizations.
  
The observers will be deployed in all the 14 regions of the country and coordinated from the capital, Dakar, the Commission said.

New ECOWAS Commission President Kadre Desire Ouedraogo is expected to participate in the mission on Election Day, it said.

In the runoff, Former Prime Minister Mackey Sall, 50, who won 27% of the vote in the first round, will square up against the 85-year-old incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade, who took 35%.

Most of the 13 candidates who contested against President Wade in the first round have said they will support Mr. Sall, a member of the 23 June Movement (M23) which staged protests against Mr Wade's bid for a third term.
-0- PANA SEG 21Mar2012