DAKAR: Senegal's opposition called Wednesday for mass demonstrations against a draft election law opponents see as an attempt by President Abdoulaye Wade to hand power to his son after next year's poll.
Parliament will on Thursday debate the draft which would add a vice president to the presidential ticket at elections in eight months' time and has drawn a torrent of criticism, including from pop star Youssou Ndour.
The draft says the joint ticket will need only 25 percent of votes to win the first election round -- down from the current 50 percent plus one, and will see the vice president take over automatically in case of the president's death or resignation.
"We call on activists, citizens and sympathisers to show a massive presence in front of the national assembly to defend the constitution and protest against the vote on the draft law," parliamentarian Mbaye Niang told AFP.
"Even if the draft is passed, the fight continues. We are signing up to this fight for the long term," said Niang, also spokesman for the main opposition coalition.
"We cannot accept that our constitution should be treated like a rough notebook. Since 2001, it is the 18th time that the president has carried out changes which have turned back democracy," he said.
In Paris several dozen people occupied Senegal's embassy for about an hour Wednesday to protest the draft law.
Police said there were about 40 people at the protest, which it was called to break up, while demonstrators said they numbered 100.
Opponents say the draft law, approved by the cabinet last week, amounts to an election "hijack" to ensure reportedly ailing Wade, 85, can hand power to his son Karim Wade, a government minister.
The opposition has announced a "Don't Touch My Constitution" coalition and world-renowned singer Youssou Ndour has hit out at an "abuse of authority".
After charges of an "institutional coup d'etat", government spokesman Moustapha Guirassy defended the draft on Tuesday, telling journalists the plan was to "reinforce democracy" by seeing that power was shared.
The proposed law says that "in case of the resignation, permanent impediment or death during the mandate, the president of the republic is replaced by the vice president".
The new president would be able to name or dismiss a new vice president.
A second round of elections would only be necessary if no ticket wins more than a quarter of the votes, it says. It was not clear what would happen if two tickets win more than 25 percent.
Approval by the national assembly on Thursday would see the legislation sent to the senate for approval.
Guirassy, also communications minister, rejected allegations that Wade -- who will stand for a third term -- was lining up his son to take over from him, saying the draft came with constitutional guarantees against a "monarchic devolution of power".
Karim Wade, in his early 40s, holds several portfolios in his father's government, including energy, infrastructure and international cooperation.
He was heavily defeated in 2009 municipal elections, even losing in his own district of the capital, Dakar.
Ndour, one of the continent's best known stars, said in a statement late Tuesday it was from "humility and conviction" that he had intervened in the political debate.
"It would seem to me more appropriate to bring solutions to the current problems" of the country than to focus on "personal ambitions that could plunge our very young republic into chaos," he said.
"I see no reason that justifies such an abuse of authority," the singer's statement said.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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