Senegal death toll reaches 30

DAKAR (AFP) - Senegal's President, Abdou Diouf, looked set to win a fourth term in office after elections during which violence in the southern Casamance province left 30 dead.

Mr Diouf took more than 50 per cent of the votes in Sunday's poll, but his main rival, Abdoulaye Wade, of the Democratic Party of Senegal, was ahead in Dakar and the manufacturing town of Thies. Officials of Mr Diouf's Socialist Party said they expected him to win on the first round with up to 58 per cent of the votes. Authorities delayed publication of the final results, due yesterday, to today at the earliest.

Mr Diouf, 58, a lifelong public servant and politician, took over constitutionally as president from Leopold Sedar Senghor in 1981 after serving as prime minister, and has been twice re-elected. Mr Wade served for 16 months as a minister from April 1991.