Abdou Diouf

Abdou Diouf ( ; Serer: ; born 7 September 1935) is a Senegalese politician who was the second president of Senegal from 1981 to 2000.

Diouf is notable both for coming to power by peaceful succession and leaving willingly after losing the 2000 presidential election to long-time opposition-leader Abdoulaye Wade. He was also the second Secretary-General of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie from January 2003 to December 2014.

Early life Diouf was born into the Joof family in Louga, Senegal, the child of an Helpulaar mother and a Serer father. He attended primary and secondary school at the Lycée Faidherbe in Saint-Louis. He studied law at Dakar University and then at the Sorbonne in Paris. Diouf graduated in 1959. In 1961 he joined the Senegalese Progressive Union (Union Progressiste Sénégalaise, UPS), which later became the Socialist Party of Senegal.

In 1985, opposing parties tried to form a coalition. It was broken up because the national constitution forbade coalitions. Also in 1985, Abdoulaye Wade, Diouf's main political opponent, was temporarily arrested for unlawful demonstration.

In February 1988, elections were held again. Diouf won 72.3 percent of the vote to Wade's 25.8 percent, and opposing parties alleged electoral fraud. Disturbances followed, and Diouf declared a state of emergency, detaining Wade again until May of that year.

Senegambia Under Diouf, Senegal agreed to form a confederation called Senegambia with neighboring Gambia on 12 December 1981; this union took place on 1 February 1982. In April 1989, the Mauritania-Senegal Border War developed, leading to an outbreak of ethnic violence and the severing of diplomatic relations with Mauritania. As the region destabilized, Senegambia was dissolved.

Response to AIDS In 1986, Diouf began an anti-AIDS program in Senegal before the virus was able to take off in earnest. He used the media and schools to promote safe-sex messages and required prostitutes to be registered. He also encouraged civic organizations and both Christian and Muslim religious leaders to raise awareness about AIDS. The result was that while AIDS was decimating much of Africa, the infection rate for Senegal stayed below 2 percent.

1993 and 2000 elections

Diouf was reelected in February 1993 with 58% of the vote to a 7-year term; presidential term lengths had been extended by two years in 1991. In the first round of the 2000 elections, on 27 February, he took 41.3% of the vote against 30.1% for the long-time opposition leader Abdoulaye Wade. Still, in the second round on 19 March, he received only 41.5% against 58.5% for Wade.

Socialist Party leadership Diouf was Deputy Secretary-General of the Socialist Party under Senghor. He became Secretary-General in 1981, and when the party was restructured he was moved to the position of President of the PS, following the withdrawal of the only other candidate, Henri Lopes of the Republic of the Congo. Diouf took office as Secretary-General on 1 January 2003. He was reelected as Secretary-General for another four years at the organization's summit in Bucharest in September 2006.

Diouf is an Eminent Member of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation.

Diouf is also a member of the Fondation Chirac's honour committee, ever since the foundation was launched in 2008 by former French president Jacques Chirac in order to promote world peace and on the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT) International Advisory Board. Additionally, he is one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.

Honours and decorations