Abdoulaye Bathily

Abdoulaye Bathily (born 1947) is a Senegalese politician and the Secretary-General of the Democratic League/Movement for the Labour Party (LD/MPT). [http://www.apanews.net/spip.php?page=show_article_eng&id_article=20437 "Abdoulaye Bathily, un ancien allié de Wade à l’assaut du pouvoir"] , African Press Agency, February 5, 2007 fr.]

Bathily was born in Tiyabu in Bakel Department. After serving as the Third Secretary of the Democratic League in charge of the press and external relations, he was elected as the party's Secretary-General at its First Congress on April 6–7, 1984, succeeding Babacar Sané. [http://web.archive.org/web/20070702203821/http://www.bathilypresident2007.org/spip.php?article19 "Abdoulaye Bathily, une valeur sûre, un homme de parole."] , Bathily 2007 campaign site, February 9, 2007 fr icon.] He was the LD/MPT's candidate in the February 1993 presidential election, taking fourth place with 2.41% of the vote. [ [http://africanelections.tripod.com/sn.html Elections in Senegal] , African Elections Database.] In the February 1993 parliamentary election, he was elected to the National Assembly; he then served as Minister for the Environment and the Protection of Nature from 1993 to 1998 under President Abdou Diouf. He was re-elected to the National Assembly in the 1998 parliamentary election. Bathily and the LD/MPT backed opposition candidate Abdoulaye Wade in the 2000 presidential election, and following Wade's victory he was named Minister of Energy and Hydraulics in April 2000, remaining in that post until May 2001. He was again elected to the National Assembly of Senegal in the April 2001 parliamentary election from Bakel Department [http://web.archive.org/web/20030803173155/www.assemblee-nationale.sn/deputes/stat/depart_alpha.html List of deputies elected in 2001 on departmental lists] fr icon.] as a candidate of the ruling Sopi Coalition, and he became the Third Vice-President of the National Assembly. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20020811142013/http://www.gouv.sn/institutions/assemblee_bureau.cfm List of members of the Bureau of the National Assembly (2002 archive page)] , gouv.sn fr icon.] Subsequently the LD/MPT grew increasingly at odds with Wade, and Bathily led a vote in the National Assembly against an amnesty for individuals implicated in the 1993 killing of Constitutional Council Vice-President Babacar Sèye. Wade dismissed the LD/MPT ministers from the government in March 2005 [ [http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=86&art_id=qw1110458701235B252 "Senegal's president sacks key leftist members"] , AFP ("IOL"), March 10, 2005.] and the party left the Sopi Coalition, going into opposition.

Bathily ran again in the February 2007 presidential election as the candidate of the Jubbanti Sénégal coalition, taking sixth place with 2.21% of the vote, according to official results. [http://www.seneweb.com/news/elections2007/article.php?artid=9107 "Le texte intégral de la décision du Conseil constitutionnel"] , Agence de Presse Sénégalaise (Seneweb.com), March 11, 2007 fr.] Bathily's campaign rejected the results and alleged that there were flaws in the voting, saying that a person could be registered more than once, and that the ink used in voting, which was supposed to be indelible, could be washed off. [Diadie Ba, [http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=300733&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/ "Senegal's Wade re-elected, warns opposition"] , Reuters ("Mail & Guardian Online"), March 2 2007.] Along with Socialist Party candidate Ousmane Tanor Dieng, Bathily filed an appeal regarding the election, but their appeals were rejected by the Constitutional Council.

He was briefly detained by police in late January 2007, along with other opposition leaders, after participating in a banned protest regarding the delaying of parliamentary elections until June. [ [http://www.apanews.net/spip.php?page=show_article_eng&id_article=19892 "Police free Senegalese opposition leaders"] , African Press Agency, January 27, 2007.]

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