Senegal elections update: Wade and opposition in tight race

Senegal’s leading opposition candidate says no candidate won the 50 percent necessary to win a presidential poll outright, making a runoff “inevitable.”

Macky Sall said in comments carried by the country’s private radios Monday that he had won both the capital and several major towns in the interior. But he said neither he nor 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade got the majority needed to avoid a runoff.

Analysts believed that Wade needed to win on the first round, when the opposition was split between 13 candidates. In a runoff, they believe he will be defeated because the opposition will be united.

Wade had said on the eve of Sunday’s vote that he expected to win in the first round with “a crushing majority.”

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.