By Nick Tattersall

DAKAR, Feb 24 (Reuters) - A stone's throw from earthmovers laying a prestigious new coastal highway, the residents of a crumbling neighbourhood in Senegal's capital Dakar could be forgiven for thinking progress was leaving them behind.

Hoping to win a second mandate in presidential elections on Sunday, incumbent Abdoulaye Wade has made grand infrastructure projects such as the corniche road and a planned new airport one of the cornerstones of his campaign.

"Tireless builder Abdoulaye Wade ... launches Dakar on the road to modernity" declares one of his flyers, a picture of the dapper octogenarian leader set alongside architectural designs for new museums, theatres, monuments and schools.

But for residents of Gueule Tapee -- one of the city's many sprawling suburbs where women queue around communal wells to wash pots and pans and wandering goats eat litter off the ground where children play -- such grand plans are mere pipe dreams.

"What does that do for people, improving the coastal highway at a cost of billions of francs when 20 km from here there are villages without electricity," said businessman Ousseynou Diouf, 40, reclining under the shade of an acacia tree.

"There's the lovely new corniche, but 500 metres away look at the state of these houses, look at these streets," he said, clad in a traditional long brown robe and fake Ray-Ban sunglasses, jabbing his finger angrily at the rock-strewn, potholed road.

When Wade won elections in 2000 he brought an end to four decades of socialist rule in the former French colony, a country often viewed as an African success story: one of the continent's most stable democracies, religiously tolerant and a major recipient of foreign aid as a result.

His critics say he has since failed to create the jobs he promised, concentrating instead on cultivating an image as an African elder statesman and mediator in foreign crises.

He is nonetheless expected to win Sunday's vote, thanks partly to support from influential Islamic Mouride brotherhood, but also because his optimistic vision of Senegal's future is enticing even some of those who may not immediately benefit.

"He has a broad vision of development. He is doing everything at once. It is not just the corniche. He has brought water to villages, built roads so produce can be transported out of the bush," said Modou Ndaw, a 45-year-old teacher.

"I personally am in debt, I am suffering, I cannot always help my family. But the development of the country is not just about me. People have to have a wider vision," he said.

Some floating voters not particularly drawn to any of the other 14 candidates -- from former prime minister and Wade ally Idrissa Seck to technocrat socialist Ousmane Tanor Dieng -- say Wade should be allowed to finish what he has begun.

"He's the one who started all these works so he has to be the one to finish them. If someone else comes in it will all go to waste," said Amadou Fall, a 26-year-old driver.

"Who else can we vote for?"

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