Washington, DC — An Atlanta-based law firm with an extensive practice with U.S. government agencies in Washington has been assisting Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade with his controversial bid to seek a third term of office.
Demonstrations erupted in the capital, Dakar, after the Constitutional Court last week cleared the way for Wade to compete in the February 26 presidential contest on the grounds that term limits were introduced after he first came to office.
The Constitution was adopted after the 2000 election, when the long-time opposition leader won a first seven-year term. He was re-elected in 2007, under the new Constitution, for a five-year term. The court said the constitutional term limit does not apply to him.
Countrywide protests have so far claimed four dead, including a policeman, and several wounded.
McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, a firm with 475 attorneys and public policy advisors, was engaged to "provide a legal opinion" on a third term and "assist in the development of a plan" for briefing U.S. executive branch officials and members of Congress on the issue. The firm requested a U.S. $100,000 retainer and $50,000 for "researching and drafting" a white paper, plus a $50,000 monthly fee.
The terms were outlined in an October 10 letter addressed to Wade from McKenna partner Thurbert Baker, who served for 13 years as Georgia's attorney general - the first African American to hold that post - and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2009.
Baker said "a team of lawyers and professionals" would analyze Wade's "authority to seek a third term" and draw up a white paper and develop "an agreed upon protocol" for presenting the findings in the United States and Senegal. The letter was included in a registration statement filed by the firm with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The listed client is the Republic of Senegal, which presumably is responsible for paying the costs of a legal battle that would favor the incumbent over his rivals for the country's top post.
In addition to Baker, the firm includes former Georgia governor Zell Miller, who initially appointed Baker to the attorney-general post, as well as Howard Dean, a former Democratic presidential candidate and governor of Vermont.
