Dakar - Senegal's 83-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade said on Thursday that he would stand for a third term in 2012 but pledged that the race would be open and without "cheating".
"I will be a candidate in 2012, God willing, if God gives me a long life," Wade said in remarks aired by the Voice of America's French service.
"I have the right to be president," one more time, he said.
Wade became president in 2000 after spending decades in the opposition.
There has been speculation that Wade's 40-year-old son Karim, a government minister, would be the ruling party's presidential candidate in 2012. - AFP