20120326
AFP
Senegalese began voting Sunday in a run-off election in which the opposition has united to thwart 85-year-old incumbent Abdoulaye Wade's efforts to stay in power for a third term.

Long lines of people waited to vote before polls opened at 0800 GMT in the election in which some 5.3 million people have registered to vote.

"Everything is well organised and we are happy to carry out our civic duty," said Leonard Diop, a voter of about 50-years-old at the Hamadou Mbacke primary school in downtown Dakar where about 100 people waited patiently to vote.

Having failed to deliver a crushing first-round victory a month ago, Wade faces a stiff challenge from his former prime minister Macky Sall, who has gathered the full weight of the opposition behind his presidential bid.

While Wade came first in the February 26 vote with 34.8 percent of the vote to his ex-protege's 26.58 percent, the octogenarian is in an uncomfortable position as Sall has secured the support of all the other candidates during the electoral campaign.

The second round vote comes after two months of suspense in Senegal, which has been shaken by deadly riots protesting Wade's controversial bid for a third term after he circumvented a constitutional term limit.

Despite having served two terms, a limit he himself introduced, Wade says later changes to the constitution allow him to serve two more mandates as the law is not retroactive. This argument was upheld by the country's constitutional council.