Senegal president's birth date questioned

KEBEMER, Senegal -- The question dogging the president as he tries to persuade his country to vote for him one last time can be traced to this town enveloped in sand. It's here in a house with a goat tethered outside that President Abdoulaye Wade was born.

The problem is, when?

His birth certificate is locked away. And the page in a document stating when he entered primary school has been torn out. As Wade tries for a third term in next week's election, his age has become a campaign issue.

Officially, Wade was born on May 29, 1926, making him 85 years old in a nation where most people die around age 59. His critics contend that he may be 90, the world's oldest leader.

They point to a common practice in rural Senegal of reducing children's ages on official documents so they can stay home longer and help in the fields before starting school.

The issue is so touchy that a longtime resident who knew the president before he was elected began receiving death threats this week after he claimed Wade was born in 1919.

"His age is a problem. The issue is the uncertainty it causes. Is he capable of managing the nation?" said Mayor Cheikh Bamba Dieye of Saint-Louis, where Wade's birth certificate is kept in a locked room.

Ibrahima Gueye, the division chief overseeing birth records in Saint-Louis, will not show reporters Wade's birth certificate. But he says it's no secret that the colonial-era records usually don't state authentic dates of birth.

Meanwhile, two more people were killed in protests calling for Wade's departure, including a demonstrator in the regional capital of Kaolack and a young man hit by a rock in a suburb of the capital, Dakar, the state-owned news agency reported. That brings to six the number of people killed in three weeks of violence.

Yesterday saw some of the most intense street battles yet, as oppositionists seized control of more than three blocks in downtown Dakar.

In June, the worst riots in a decade shut down Dakar as Wade unsuccessfully tried to create the post of vice president. Critics said it was intended for his son.