By James Tasamba
KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) – Polling officials in Senegal began counting votes in Sunday's presidential election as President Macky Sall warned candidates and political camps against prematurely proclaiming victory.
Polls were open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time across 16,440 polling stations.
The tallying started immediately after polling closed, video footage showed.
Long queues formed outside polling stations early Sunday as voters cast their ballots.
The first official results must be published no later than March 29.
Two potential frontrunners -- Amadou Ba of the ruling coalition, chosen by outgoing President Sall, and Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a candidate backed by opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who is popular among the youth -- said they were confident of winning the poll.
The presidential election saw a high turnout in different regions of the country, according to Abdoulaye Sylla, the president of the Autonomous National Electoral Commission (CENA).
“We have toured the departments of Dakar. What we noticed at first glance is that the turnout is very high, at 42% at the polling stations we visited. We are delighted with this strong turnout,” he told reporters.
There were 19 candidates, including the only female candidate, Anta Babacar Ngom, but two dropped out to back Faye.
President Sall, whose term ends on April 2, cast his vote in the western town of Fatick.
Speaking after voting, he stressed that only the country’s Constitutional Council is empowered to announce the final results of the election.
“No candidate or (political) camp should proclaim victory before the official results,” he said.
Noting that the electoral campaign took place in conditions of calm and serenity, Sall commended the Senegalese people for “their political maturity and sense of duty.”
Sall also said that voting was smooth throughout the country.
Some 7.3 million Senegalese were eligible to vote in the tight presidential election.
More than 2,000 observers, including more than 800 international monitors, were accredited for the presidential election, according to the electoral body.
If no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote, a second round of voting will take place in two weeks.
On Feb. 3, President Sall, who has been in power since 2012, postponed the presidential election originally scheduled on Feb. 25, citing a dispute over the candidate list and alleged corruption of constitutional judges, triggering political chaos in which three people were killed.
The National Assembly then passed a bill postponing the vote until Dec. 15 as security forces stormed the building and removed some opposition lawmakers.
But the Senegalese Constitutional Council declared the law postponing the country’s presidential vote to December “unconstitutional” and annulled his decree to delay the poll.
Sall announced the new poll date after the Constitutional Council ruled that it would be unconstitutional to hold the presidential election after April 2, the date marking the end of the current term of the president.