Senegalese presidential election, 2007

A presidential election was held in Senegal on 25 February 2007. The incumbent president, Abdoulaye Wade, who was first elected in 2000, won the election in the first round with almost 56% of the vote.

Wade announced the date for the election on 13 April 2006. The election campaign officially began on 4 February 2007. Soldiers voted early on 17 February and 18 February; this was the first time in the country's history that soldiers were allowed to vote.

Had a run-off been necessary, it would have been held on 18 March 2007. A parliamentary election was initially intended to be held on 25 February as well, but it was delayed to 3 June 2007.

15 candidates ran for President, including Wade. Wade was nominated as the presidential candidate of his party, the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), on October 15, 2006.Idrissa Seck, a former Prime Minister who was once considered Wade's protégé, also ran. Seck announced his candidacy for President in April 2006; he had been arrested in 2005 on charges of embezzlement and threatening state security but never faced a trial and was eventually released in February 2006. On January 22, 2007, Wade said that Seck had agreed to return to the ruling PDS; Seck subsequently confirmed this, but said that he would remain a presidential candidate. If he had withdrawn his candidacy, the law would have required that the election be delayed, but shortly afterwards the National Assembly voted to change the law so that a delay would not be necessary in the event of a candidate's withdrawal.

Ousmane Tanor Dieng ran as the candidate of the former ruling Socialist Party (PS). Former Prime Minister Moustapha Niasse ran as the candidate of a coalition of opposition parties, including his own Alliance of the Forces of Progress (AFP). Other candidates included Abdoulaye Bathily of the Democratic League/Movement for the Labour Party (LD/MPT),Landing Savané, a Minister of State and the Secretary-General of And-Jëf/African Party for Democracy and Socialism (AJ/PADS),Ziguinchor Mayor Robert Sagna, and former ambassador Modou Dia.

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