Abdoulaye Wade, (born May 29, 1926, Kébémer, Seneg.), President of Senegal from 2000 to 2012. He was educated in both Senegal and France and earned a Ph.D. in law and economics from the Sorbonne in 1970. He practiced law in France for a few years and then returned to Senegal, where he became a professor and later dean of law and economics at the University of Dakar. In 1974 he founded the Senegalese Democratic Party (Parti Démocratique Sénégalais) as an opposition party. He won a seat in the National Assembly in 1978 and held ministerial positions in government in the late 1980s and ’90s. Wade had launched four unsuccessful bids for the presidency before his victory in 2000. He was reelected in 2007. Wade’s controversial bid for a third term as president ended with his resounding defeat at the polls in 2012.
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