Aminata Tall, once a top aide to Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, has announced her bid to challenge him in next year's election.

Tall said Sunday men seek power to “become someone” but women seek it to “do something.” Tall said her candidacy would be the payoff from long-standing efforts toward gender equality in Senegalese politics.

Tall has left Mr. Wade's Senegalese Democratic Party and founded her own Synergy for Ethics and Transparency party to back her campaign.

She is the second woman to declare her candidacy in a wide field that includes Mr. Wade, who seeking a controversial third term.

A constitutional statue limits the presidency to two terms. But Mr. Wade's supporters say he is entitled to run again because the new constitution was not in effect when he was first elected in 2000.

There have been large scale protests in Senegal's capital, Dakar, against the 85-year-old president's bid for a third term.

The election is scheduled for February 2012.