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He has had his eye on the presidency for a long time before finally winning in a run-off election on Sunday.
The 74-year-old opposition veteran took part in his first presidential election in 1978, and in four subsequent polls.
 Newly-elected President Abdoulaye Wade
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Since then he has been denouncing the de facto one-party rule of his great rival President Abdou Diouf.
The Socialist Party, which has been in power since independence from France in 1960, has been described by Mr Wade as corrupt and full of cronyism.
"The first great objective of my political life was to get rid of a system in Senegal. Midnight has struck, the system is dead," Mr Wade said after voting in the second round of presidential elections on Sunday.
Liberal with few promises
Mr Wade is a devout Muslim and presents himself as a liberal, although he has successfully allied himself to parties further to the left.
Several times a political prisoner, the president-elect describes himself as a "committed pan-Africanist".
He has been an MP and has served twice in a coalition government
 Strong support for Mr Wade in urban areas
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He has studied and taught law in France and was dean of the law and economics faculty at the University of Dakar, Senegal.
During the election he failed to make many election promises - other than to govern by certain principles - "probity, good work and involvement of the youth in the construction of Senegal".
Though he is most popular in urban areas, it also appears that for the first time rural voters have also away from the Socialist Party and towards Mr Wade.
The long-standing rivals contested the nation's first ever run-off presidential vote on Sunday after a first round proved inconclusive.
Five of the six other candidates who dropped out backed Mr Wade, including Moustapha Niasse, a former foreign minister in President Diouf's party who is expected to become the new prime minister.
Mr Niasse has said the new government's first task would be "to re-establish the country's equilibrium and stop the wave of corruption".
Shaven heads
Mr Wade has also attracted some fanatical supporters - promising some highly unusual celebrations.
"We have told everyone we will shave our heads to be like Mr Wade," one group of fervent supporters told journalists.
"After that we are going to stand naked in front of the presidential palace to proclaim that we are like new-born babies and that a new Senegal is born."
But celebrations aside, Mr Wade's historic victory above all will be seen as a triumph for a country which has long been considered a model of African democracy, despite the Socialists never previously having lost their grip on power.
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