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Reuters
More than six million people are registered on the electoral lists
Senegalese voters vote in the country's presidential election.
President Macky Sall is looking for a second term and is facing four candidates.
Since taking office, Mr. Sall has focused on new infrastructure projects, but critics say he has done nothing to improve the lives of ordinary Senegalese.
He is also accused of preventing political rivals from running for office.
Last month, two well-known opposition figures were prevented from participating in the elections because of previous convictions for corruption.
Khalifa Sall, the former popular mayor of Dakar, and Karim Wade, the son of the former president, were found ineligible to run for corruption convictions.
As a result of this decision, neither the Socialist Party nor the Senegalese Democratic Party, which dominate the political landscape of the country since independence, do not present candidates for the presidential election.
A law was also pbaded in 2018, requiring candidates to have a certain number of voters' signatures in order to run for office.
As a result, only five candidates were found eligible for Sunday's vote, compared with 12 in the last election.
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Mr. Sall has been touted as a modernizer who has helped bring economic growth to over 6% a year, one of the highest rates in Africa.
More than 6.6 million people are registered on the electoral lists and the choice of those whom the young people decide to support could have a significant impact, since the average age in the country is 19 years old.
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With two democratic transitions of power and no coup d'état since its independence in 1960, Senegal is one of the most stable countries in Africa.
Preliminary results are expected soon after the polls close at 6:00 pm local time (18:00 GMT), but they will not be formalized until one or two days later, reports the AFP news agency.
If no candidate obtains an absolute majority, the country will hold a second round of voting on 24 March.
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