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AFP
Senegal voted on Sunday in its most contentious election yet as 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade seeks a disputed third term, testing its credentials as one of Africa's most stable countries.

Voters waited in long lines to cast their ballots at polling stations around the west African nation in an election pitting the veteran Wade against 13 opposition candidates in a wide-open race.

Some 5.3 million people have registered for the election, which has been marred by weeks of riots over Wade's candidacy that left six people dead and prompted international calls for calm.

The octogenarian has dismissed the opposition protests as "temper tantrums."

"My majority is so overwhelming that I think I will be elected with a strong percentage in the first round," Wade said in an interview with the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche published Sunday.

He heaped derision on calls from France and the United States that he retire, saying his former allies had criticised him because "I am not docile ... I am not a Negro service boy."

The African Union's envoy, former Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo, said he was pleased with the voting process by midday, saying he believed "we may have a peaceful and honest election."

In a polling station in downtown Dakar, its walls brightly painted with cartoon characters, Cheikh Angai said he had voted for Macky Sall, one of three former prime ministers in the race, who is seen as the main challenger to Wade.

"He will win, no problem. He is a dignified and serious man. Wade is too old, he has done a good job but now he must leave," he said.

Amadou Ndiaye, 62, said he was voting for Idrissa Seck, Wade's former protege and prime minister before a bitter falling-out.

"The president will try to steal the election, but still, one must vote. The old man must leave. There are younger people there. Amongst them, Idy comes across the best, I hope he will change things."

In parts of the restive southern region of Casamance, some polling stations had not opened by mid-morning due to threats by rebels who have waged a simmering independence struggle for 30 years.

Despite having served two terms in office, a limit he himself introduced, Wade says 2008 constitutional changes extending term lengths from five to seven years allow him to serve two more mandates.

A win would mean Wade would leave office aged 92 in a nation where the median age is 18. He is currently Africa's second oldest leader after Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, 88.

The opposition accuses him of trying to line up his son Karim Wade to succeed him.

Wade was first elected in 2000 to great euphoria as he unseated the Socialist Party after 25 years in opposition and four failed attempts.

He has grown increasingly unpopular amid social anger over rising food prices and crippling power cuts, while he is accused of focusing on prestigious infrastructure projects.

Wade's supporters praise him for overseeing a development boom.

"Wade will be elected in the first round, I am sure and I wish for it," said a man in his 50s dressed in flowing blue robes.

"The protests against his candidacy are just political manipulations."

Analysts say Wade needs to win in the first round while the opposition field is divided, as he would fare less well in a two-horse second round.

Paul Melly, an analyst with London-based think-tank Chatham House, told AFP that a Wade first-round win "could produce a further upsurge in protest and anger on the streets."

The validation of Wade's candidacy by the country's highest court led to a month of often deadly riots waged by the June 23 Movement (M23), an alliance of opposition parties, rappers and activists.

The former French colony of some 13 million people is one of the continent's pioneer democracies, boasting an unbroken series of elections since independence in 1960. Unlike many of its troubled neighbours it has never suffered a coup.