Voters in Senegal cast their ballots for a new president on Sunday, with early reports suggesting high turnout. Seventeen candidates were vying to replace incumbent Macky Sall, who has led the country since 2012 and is not eligible to run again.
Some 7.3 million voters are registered in the West African country, which has often been hailed as one of the most stable democracies in a region that experienced several coups in recent years.
The election will choose the nation's fifth president since Senegal gained independence from France in 1960. It is the first time in the country's history that the incumbent is not on the ballot.
Voting began at 8am local time and ended at 6pm, with counting starting immediately afterwards. Provisional results are expected within five days.
Polling stations opened on time and voting proceeded calmly throughout the day, reported RFI's correspondents in Dakar, Saint-Louis and Ziguinchor.
Record number of contenders
With a record 17 candidates in the running, a second round looks likely.
Two favourites have emerged: former prime minister Amadou Ba, the ruling party candidate, and Bassirou Diomaye Faye, representing a popular anti-establishment coalition.
Ba is President Sall's preferred successor, while Faye is running in place of opposition figurehead Ousmane Sonko, who was barred from running over a conviction that he disputes.
Veteran politicians Idrissa Seck, a former prime minister under Sall's predecessor, and Khalifa Sall – a longtime opposition leader and no relation to the president – are also among the frontrunners.
'Orderly' voting
Hundreds of observers drawn from civil society, the African Union, the Ecowas regional group and the European Union monitored the vote across Senegal.
By Sunday afternoon, the head of the EU mission, Malin Bjork, said that voting was taking place "calmly, efficiently and (in a) very orderly manner".
More than 16,000 polling stations were set up, including around 800 overseas.
In France, home to a large Senegalese community, nearly 80,000 people were registered to take part.
At a polling station in a gym in Asnières-sur Seine, a suburb north-west of Paris, several thousand overseas voters were expected. The line to cast ballots stretched round the block, RFI's correspondent Marie Casadebaig observed.
Vote delayed
The election was held weeks after Sall unsuccessfully tried to call it off until the end of the year.
After two consecutive terms in office, Senegal's constitution does not allow him to run a third time. His opponents saw his attempt to postpone the vote as a bid to defy democratic process and stay in power.
After weeks of unrest that left four people dead, the country's top constitutional body stepped in and forced him to schedule the election on 24 March, almost exactly a month after it was originally due to take place.
If the election goes to a run-off, a second round of voting will be organised around two weeks later.
The eventual winner will face the difficult task of steering Senegal out of its political crisis and managing revenues from oil and gas reserves that are shortly to start production – while alleviating the economic hardship and widespread youth unemployment that drives thousands to risk their lives in search of jobs in Europe.
(with newswires)
