UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on all parties in Senegal to ensure weekend presidential elections are free from violence.
Friday marks the final day for campaigning ahead of the Sunday vote. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade was granted the right to seek a third term when a court ruled he wasn't covered by laws imposing a presidential term limit because they were adopted after his first election in 2000.
The opposition National Democratic Rally vowed to work to thwart Wade's bid for a third term.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay had said Senegal has a long record of peaceful democratic elections, calling on all presidential candidates to renounce violence. Ban, through his spokesman, called for a credible and transparent vote.
"He calls on political actors to refrain from using or inciting violence during the electoral period and appeals once again for all electoral disputes to be resolved through legal and peaceful means," the statement read.
Several people have been killed in Senegal in the run up to the election.
Disenfranchised youth are among those calling for political change in the country. Al-Jazeera reports most people in the country survive on less than $2 per day.
