It was the fourth day running that clashes had been witnessed in the city, with riot police firing tear gas and deploying water cannon against rock-throwing demonstrators, who are demanding that Abdoulaye Wade step down.

Wade is running for a third seven-year presidential term in elections scheduled for February 26.

Medics reported about a dozen injured while police said a young Senegalese man died Saturday of wounds sustained in a demonstration the previous day in the country's second city of Kaolack.

He succumbed to injuries after having been struck by a teargas grenade fired by police, according to news agency AFP.

The government has banned all opposition protest around Dakar's Independence Square, citing security reasons. However, protests have persisted despite the police presence.

Opposition leaders and civil society group M-23 have vowed to make the country ungovernable if Wade does not resign and withdraw his bid to stay in office, arguing that his bid breaches rules setting a two-term presidential limit.

Violence also erupted Friday night in the western city of Tivaouane, capital of the nation's largest Islamic brotherhood, the Tidianes, after police threw teargas into one of their mosques in Dakar.

The clashes come as around 23,000 security personnel and police voted in early balloting on Saturday.

dfm/ai (Reuters, AFP)