Opposition boycotts Senegal parliamentary polls

DAKAR, June 3 (Reuters) Senegal's main opposition parties boycotted parliamentary elections today, hoping for a low turnout to highlight their protest against what they called President Abdoulaye Wade's ''monarchy''.

The boycott strategy was expected to give Wade's ruling Sopi coalition a walkover win in the polls, just over three months after the octogenarian head of state won easy re-election in a February presidential vote rejected as fraudulent by opponents.

More than 3,500 candidates are running for 150 seats in the new National Assembly, which will serve a 5-year term. But more than a dozen opposition parties did not field contenders.

After polling stations opened in Dakar, the seaside capital of the small West African state, only a trickle of voters turned out at some, suggesting the boycott call could find support.

Aissatou Diop, a 24-year-old student who was buying bread, said she would not be voting.

''Those who will sit in the National Assembly won't be honourably representing the people,'' she said.

The opposition boycott and lopsided polls risked tarnishing Senegal's image as a model of working democracy in Africa.

Since independence from France in 1960, the mainly Muslim country has earned a reputation for political, ethnic and religious tolerance and has suffered no post-independence coups -- a unique record in turbulent West Africa.

Opposition leaders, including several defeated by Wade in the February presidential election, launched the polls boycott after he refused to discuss their complaints that the electoral process and voters' roll were flawed and tilted in favour of his ruling Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS).

The opposition says a low turnout among the nearly five million voters will deliver a ''stinging response'' to Wade.

Opposition supporters handed out leaflets justifying the boycott as an action to ''save democracy'' and ''fight Wade's monarchy''.

POLITICAL SUICIDE? The parliament, enlarged this year from 120 members, was already dominated by Wade's Sopi coalition with close to 90 seats, and the ruling group was expected to extend its control.

''Obviously the absence of opposition is going to remove interest from these elections,'' said Alioune Tine of the Dakar-based African human rights group RADDHO.

Wade supporters accused the opposition of acting out of defeatist spite and some saw the boycott as political suicide.

''If you don't vote, then you can't get up and say anything the next day ... Five years without having a voice (in the National Assembly), that's irresponsible,'' said Alioune Youm, 48, a commercial agent, as he voted in downtown Dakar.

Many fear the opposition boycott will remove any effective check to Wade, who has already been criticised for harassing political foes and media critics with temporary detentions.

''(Wade's) refusal to talk to the opposition is unacceptable ... we're fighting a battle of principles to deepen democracy,'' said Ousmane Tanor Dieng, leader of the main opposition Socialist Party (PS), one of those boycotting the poll.

Wade, whose first election in 2000 ended four decades of Socialist rule, has faced criticism for not doing enough to end poverty, unemployment and frustration among young Senegalese.

Thousands have risked their lives trying to reach Spain in rickety open boats in a bid to start a new life in Europe.

REUTERS LPB RK1728