Polls have opened in Senegal’s presidential election, the first since a 2016 referendum approved a cut in presidential mandates from seven to five years.
At least 6.5 million Senegalese registered to take part in the poll, which will be open from 08:00 o’clock in the morning to 6pm in the evening on Sunday.
The electoral commission has set up about 15,000 voting stations across the West African country of 15 million people.
President Macky Sall, who is seeking a second and final term in office, became the frontrunner after two of Senegal’s most well-known opposition leaders were barred from running in the election.
The former mayor of the capital, Khalifa Sall, who is not related to the president, is serving a five-year jail term on corruption charges, while Karim Wade, son of the country’s former leader Abdoulaye Wade, has gone into exile in Qatar after serving half of a six-year jail term for corruption.
