“I will tread on no corpses to get to the presidential palace,” Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade once declared from the opposition benches in a famous pledge to win power by democratic means. But now this cunning political operator may be tarnishing his legacy by going for his third re-election bid.

Twelve years after Abdoulaye Wade gained the presidency of the West African nation through the ballot box at his fifth attempt, riots over the octogenarian leader's bid for re-election in an upcoming 26 February vote have already caused at least four deaths.

Breaching election rules
The bloodshed risks tarnishing both Wade's legacy as one of the continent's most prominent senior leaders and Senegal's enviable image as a stable African state that has not suffered either a damaging coup or civil war since its independence.

Rivals say his renewed candidacy flagrantly breaches rules limiting presidents to two terms and they have vowed to make the predominantly Muslim former French colony, which is a popular with foreign tourists, "ungovernable" unless he backs down.

Super-sized ego
The bald-headed ruler, whose diminutive stature belies a super-sized political ego, does not see why street protests should force him out.

"His road to power was long, hard and often lonely," said political commentator Babacar Justin Ndiaye of Wade's 26 years of opposition which, in a twist of irony, included jail spells for inciting anti-government protests of the sort he now faces.

"That gave him an unshakeable belief in his own legitimacy. He thinks he can do no wrong," Ndiaye added of Wade, who openly mocks any comparison with the "Arab Spring" uprisings of 2011 that ousted incumbents in other Muslim states further north.

African founding father
While his birth date is disputed, Wade's official age of 85 makes him a peer of founding fathers of African independence such as Tanzania's Julius Nyerere or Guinea's Ahmed Sekou Toure. Along with Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, he is the only one of that generation in power today.

The controversy over his candidacy has transfixed Senegal and drowned out debate over the unemployment, poverty and desperation that are the lot of many of its 12 million people.

Foreign criticism
It has also earned Wade opprobrium abroad. The United States has urged him to go gracefully, while France has complained about the invalidation of the bids of rivals by the Constitutional Council, whose five judges Wade picked.

Admirers and critics call him "The Hare" - an animal which in Senegal symbolises cunning as the fox does in Europe.

But the prize Wade covets is not so much another full term as the right to have a say in who comes next. The risk for him is that in trying to shape posterity, he ruins his own legacy.

Monarchic ambitions
While both father and son strenuously deny it, critics say Wade's last ambition is to see his 43-year-old son Karim Wade take over from him in a monarchy-style succession.

A merchant banker who is fluent in English but struggles in the local Wolof language, Wade Jr's political debut in 2009 municipal elections in Dakar ended in humiliation as rival Socialists gained control of the capital city.

While that silenced talk of Karim running for president this year, his father handed him a "superministry" portfolio whose duties range from re-launching the national airline to overhauling the decrepit power grid.

The Last Barracuda
By calling it a day, Wade will pull off Senegal's first democratic handover of power and then been able to join the small but prestigious band of African leaders who have quit of their own accord.

As it is, he is skirting dangerously close to the pariah camp occupied by the likes of Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to step down last year cost his country four months of bloody conflict.

But for now, Wade is in his element. The president was on the campaign trail this week - exuding confidence and goading his rivals with the taunt: "I am the last barracuda among the little fish."

source: Reuters