Top US diplomat in Senegal to urge free vote The US government announced Friday that its top diplomat for Africa is in Senegal to encourage calm during weekend elections that follow deadly riots in the normally stable country. Johnnie Carson, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, arrived Thursday in Dakar as part of a US election monitoring team, the State Department said. "He's there to, obviously, play a positive role both conveying to the Senegalese government our desire to see calm, free, fair elections take place, and as well as to the Senegalese public," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters. Political violence has left six people dead ahead of Sunday's election, in which 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade is defiantly seeking a third term in office. Senegalese law has traditionally prohibited more than two terms for a president. The opposition June 23 Movement has defied a ban on protests and warned that a free election on Sunday would be impossible. Toner declined comment on whether the United States would support a delay in the vote, saying, "What's fundamentally important to us is that as we move forward, that these elections take place in a nonviolent or a calm manner." The United States and European Union have repeatedly called for calm and urged authorities to lift the ban on peaceful gatherings.