20120207
AFP
Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, whose reelection bid has drawn criticism from abroad, said in his opening campaign rally that France and the United States had no right to ask him to step aside.

"I do not seek the interest of the toubabs (Westerners), but that of the Senegalese people," the 85-year-old leader said late Sunday in Mbacke, 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of the capital Dakar.

"The Americans and the French are not the Senegalese's bosses. Nobody can deny our strength," he said in a speech marking the official launch of the campaign for the February 26 presidential election.

The west African country's opposition argues that Wade's bid for a third term is unconstitutional, and has launched a protest movement aimed at forcing him to drop out of the race.

Former colonial power France and the United States, once fervent supporters of the veteran leader, have voiced their disappointment and suggested Senegal was ready for a next generation of leaders.

Wade on Monday slammed in particular comments by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe who said he hoped for a "generational change" in the country.

"Is it normal that a foreign minister gets involved in the politics of a country to tell us what to do? What kind of manners are those? It is unacceptable and indecent," Wade said on French radio Sunday.

"I won't be dictated to from abroad," he added.

The country's highest court on January 27 upheld Wade's assertion that changes made to the constitution in 2008 meant he could run again despite having served two terms already.

This sparked a week of violent protests from the opposition in which four people were killed.

Opposition presidential candidates have vowed unity in their bid to force Wade to step aside, and will campaign together on Monday in the sprawling suburb of Rufisque.

Wade has dismissed the opposition campaign as "temper tantrums" and "a light breeze".

During his first rally he promised to turn Senegal into a developed nation.

He held the meeting in a region home to the powerful Mouride brotherhood, one of the majority Muslim country's four Sufi brotherhoods which is seen as holding the most political and economic power.

Wade, a Mouride himself, also went to the nearby holy city of Touba where he met Caliph Serigne Cheikh Sidy Moctar Mbacke, who is courted by most political candidates during election time.

Fourteen candidates have been approved for the February 26 polls, and singer Youssou Ndour, whose candidacy was rejected, has remained on the opposition podium in vociferously denouncing Wade's reelection bid.