Associated Press

Women dance during a united opposition rally to kick off presidential election campaigning in Dakar, Senegal.

Dakar - Hundreds of Senegalese protesters opposed to President Abdoulaye Wade's bid for a third term gathered in Dakar on Sunday, hoping to energise their protest movement on the first day of the election campaign.

The opposition 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,” Cheikh Tidiane Dieye, a leader with the June 23 Movement (M23) that called the rally, told journalists.

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

Sunday evening's rally brings 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 people dead.

Wade has already served the constitutional limit of two terms, but argues he can seek two more because the cap was introduced after his latest re-election.

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

Analysts have said that Senegal's opposition still had some work to do to spark an Arab Spring-like movement that would produce enough pressure for Wade to back down. - Sapa-AFP