From "Agence France Presse" Scheduled burning of superfluous ballots postponed in Senegal DAKAR, Jan 25 (AFP)- A set of ballots printed for presidential elections set for February 27 in Senegal were not burned as planned on Tuesday at the request of the national electoral commission, officials said. The interior ministry had decided to incinerate the documents after ordering a separate set from Israel that it said were superior because they cannot be copied or falsified. The order for the locally produced set was not cancelled in case the foreign order was not fulfilled in time for the vote, the ministry had explained. The opposition has charged that the set printed in Israel had been ordered illegally and in secret, and favour incumbent President Abdou Diouf, who is seeking reelection. The National Election Observatory (ONEL) has asked for a meeting with the interior ministry to determine the conditions for burning the Senegal-made ballots, an ONEL official said, complaining that the minisrty had decided "unilaterally" to burn them. Suspicion has clouded the run-up to the elctions for the past year, with the opposition frequently accusing the ruling Socialist Party, in power since independence in 1960, of fraud. The ONEL is seeking to defuse tensions over the controversy by delaying the burning. The opposition had rejected an invitation to attend the event, branding the affair suspicious. END ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------