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February 17th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Police on Thursday fired tear gas canisters at protesters to prevent them from converging on Obelisk Square in the capital Dakar, and later arrested eight members of a youth movement known as Simon and Kilifeu.
The young activists are part of the June 23 Movement (M23) of opposition and civil society groups that are against 85-year-old Wade’s candidacy.
Police also used water cannons to put out the fire started by demonstrators in several parts of the seaside capital.
The permanent sit-in protest was planned to start on Tuesday but riot police stopped youths from reaching the square, which has been the focal point of protests in recent weeks against Wade’s plans to run in the February 26 poll.
Interior Minister Ousmane Ngom called the sit-in protest “criminal vagrancy” and “seditious”.
He also exhibited photos of explosives and weapons he claimed were discovered at the protest site.
The M23 has again called for protest rallies on Friday and Saturday in Independence Square, in the heart of the city.
Tensions escalated in Senegal on January 27 after the Constitutional Council, appointed by Wade and known as the “five wise men”, gave the president the green light to run in the February election.
The legality of Wade’s bid for a third term has been challenged. Wade, who was first elected in 2000, ending 40 years of rule by the Socialist Party, revised the constitution in 2001 to impose a two-term limit for the president. He argues that he is exempt because he was elected before the new law was drafted.
In the court’s ruling, the judges stated that Wade’s first term under the new constitution should be the one that started when he was first re-elected in 2007.
GJH/MF/MA
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