The Senegalese turned out today in large numbers at the polling stations to elect their fifth president in a vote with a completely unpredictable result after three years of unrest and political crises.
The anti-system candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye said he was "convinced" of his victory in the first round, presenting himself as the embodiment of "rupture".
"I remain confident in the choice for the break that I can embody better than any other candidate," he said together with his two wives after voting in his village of Ndiaganiao in the west of the country.
"I remain convinced that these elections will be decided in the first round," he added.
The Senegalese government candidate for the presidential elections, Amadou Ba, also held the same opinion and said he was "very confident" that he would have victory already in the first round.
After voting in Dakar he stated that the vote in the country was going "very well" and that "there is no doubt that at the end of today we should know the next president of the Republic".
Voting will end at 6pm local time and the provisional results could be announced overnight, while the first official results are expected next week.
Some 7.3 million voters are registered in the West African nation where two frontrunners have emerged: former ruling coalition prime minister Amadou Ba and anti-establishment candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
Both were once tax inspectors, but now appear to have little in common.
Ba, 62, offers continuity while Faye, 43, promises profound change and leftist pan-Africanism.
Although both have said they will secure a first-round victory, a second round seems likely with 15 other candidates in the field, including just one woman.
The elections are being followed very carefully by Western chancelleries, especially by France, a colonial power, since Senegal is considered one of the most stable countries in West Africa shaken by coups d'état.
Dakar maintains strong relations with the West while Russia strengthens its positions in neighboring countries.
Civil society, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the European Union are sending hundreds of observers.
The Senegalese vote was initially scheduled for February 25, but the postponement of the vote sparked violence that resulted in the deaths of four people.
Several weeks of violence and strong political tensions put Senegal's democracy to the test, until March 24 was decided as the date for the vote.
The campaign was shortened to two weeks, in the middle of the Muslim fasting month.
Outgoing president Macky Sall, in office for 12 years and widely re-elected in 2019, did not run for re-election.
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