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AFP
Hundreds of Senegalese opponents to President Abdoulaye Wade's bid for a third term gathered in Dakar on Sunday, hoping to energise their protest movement as the election campaign officially kicked off.

Protesters poured in to the capital's Obelisk Square, the epicentre of the months-old protest movement against Wade, as anti-riot police looked on.

"The goal is to be united for the start of the electoral campaign," said Cheikh Tidiane Dieye, a leader with the June 23 Movement (M23) that called the rally.

"This is not your typical campaign... We are going to ramp up the struggle for the withdrawal of Wade's candidacy," he added.

Sunday evening's rally brought together eight of the 13 opposition candidates challenging Wade in the February 26 election.

On January 27, the west African country's constitutional council cleared the 85-year-old incumbent's bid for a third mandate but rejected the candidacy of world music icon Youssou Ndour.

The decision sparked a barrage of criticism from Wade's erstwhile Western allies and triggered a wave of protests in Senegal that descended into riots and left four dead last week.

The February 26 election will see some five million voters elect a president -- the 10th such ballot since independence from France in 1960.

Wade was first elected president in 2000 and re-elected to a second seven year-term in 2007.

He has already served the constitutional limit of two terms but argues he can seek two more because the cap was introduced after his latest reelection.

He has dismissed the protest movement as unrepresentative due to relatively limited mobilisation.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Sunday pointed to "Senegal's democratic tradition," saying he hoped the elections would take place in a transparent and fair manner.

"All sensitivities must be represented and apparently this is not happening very well because there are violent protests in the streets. So we are calling for calm," Juppe said on BFMTV television.

"At some point, a change of generation must take place, but this is up to the people of Senegal to decide," he added.

Eight of the main opposition leaders on Saturday called for a common front to oppose Wade's candidacy.

Meanwhile, the president Sunday held his first campaign meeting in Mbacke, in the east of the country, while RTS national television welcomed Idrissa Seck, the first of the 14 presidential candidates, to outline his programme.