Wade faces seven years in prison for allegedly amassing a multi-million dollar fortune while serving as a minister under his father’s rule. Karim Wade was nicknamed “the minister of the Earth and the sky” when his father, Abdoulaye Wade, was president from 2000 to 2012, reflecting his powerful position under his father’s rule. Wade junior is alleged to have illegally acquired companies and real estate worth almost $240m, but he denies the charges and his supporters claim the case against him is politically motivated. Saturday’s decision to nominate him was made at a party congress that was attended by 88-year-old Abdoulaye Wade, who is the secretary general of the opposition
Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS). The former president later praised the transparency of the vote, saying it had been “conducted publicly in front of party activists and even the press”. He said last month that he was prepared to “give his life” to prevent his son being convicted. “Karim Wade was chosen by 257 of the 268 delegates” to be the Democratic Party of Senegal’s presidential candidate, leading party member Tafsir Thioye told the AFP news agency. The younger Wade, who has been in custody since April 2013 and on trial since July last year, beat at least seven other candidates to become the PDS’s presidential hopeful. No date has yet been set for the upcoming election that is not due until 2017.
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