Brussels, 02/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Union supports the right of the Senegalese people to demonstrate peacefully and it deeply regrets the deaths of students. Nonetheless, at this juncture, it makes no comment on the constitutional aspects of the problem that triggered the demonstrations once the candidacy of Abdoulaye Wade had been validated for the presidential elections on 26 February and the candidacies of several opponents, including the singer Youssou N'Dour, had been invalidated. This is the gist of the statement made by Maya Kocijancic, the deputy spokesperson for Catherine Ashton, on 2 February. In response to a question from the press, asking whether the call by the US and then by France for Abdoulaye Wade to make way for the new generation had not influenced the position of the EU, the spokesperson replied: “We are calling on the political parties to abstain from all acts of violence and regret the deaths of students we witnessed this week. We would like to express our sympathy to the families of the victims and we call on the political parties to respect the procedures in place and choose dialogue in the interest of peace, fairness and all measures that represent the will of the Senegalese people. The EU is a long-standing friend and partner of Senegal and we are following the situation very closely. We are committed to facilitating a free and fair election process. We have sent an observer mission out into the field, which will be following the electoral process”. (AN/transl.fl)