Here are the main events in the protest movement over the past year:
--2011--
- March 19: In central Dakar, 3,000 to 4,000 demonstrators gather, burn a portrait of Wade, who came to power exactly 11 years earlier, and throw stones at the security forces who do not riposte. Government opponents deride allegations that there was an organised plot to overthrow it.
- June 23: Nationwide protests turn to riots in Dakar, the largest demonstrations since the 85-year-old president took power in 2000. Vehicles, buildings and some officials' residences are attacked and torched in the capital and more than 100 people injured in the clashes. The demonstrators are opposed to a change to the constitution proposed by Wade that critics see as a bid to hand power to his son after 2012 elections. Faced with the protests, Wade shelves the proposed change.
- June 24: A coalition of opposition and civil groups urges Wade to give up on another term.
- June 27: People take to the streets of Dakar and the western town of Mbour, angered by worsening power cuts, vandalising electricity offices.
- A movement, "Fed Up" created by young Senegalese rappers, urges Wade to give up on a third term and not to lead Senegal into "fire and blood".
- December 23: Wade's party announces he will run for a third term, the day after clashes kill one person.
- December 28: A leading member of the Socialist opposition involved in the latest clashes, Barthelemy Dias, is detained and charged with homicide.
--2012--
- January 2: World renowned singer Youssou Ndour announces that he will take on Wade in the elections.
- January 4: Two ex-prime ministers, Idrissa Seck and Moustapha Niasse, and the head of the socialist party, Ousmane Tanor Dieng, join the growing list of candidates in the February polls.
- January 11: Wade pardons opposition activist Malick Noel Seck, jailed last year for issuing a death threat against senior judges, who he said were silent over Wade's decision to run for a third term.
- January 24: Senegal's interior minister announces a five-day ban on all protests to prevent violence as the country awaits a ruling on whether Wade can seek a third term in office.