国际英语新闻:Voting concludes in Senegalese presidential election

DAKAR, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Ballot-counting started immediately after the voting process of the Senegalese presidential election ended peacefully around 6:00 p.m. Sunday (1800 GMT).

In a polling center in the city of Dakar, an official of the Autonomous National Electoral Commission (ANEC) told Xinhua the center closed at 6:00 p.m. sharp as scheduled. All the eight polling stations in the center started the ballot-counting afterwards.

The polling center in the neighborhood Mermoz in Dakar has a hight voter turnout which, according to the superviser sent by the ANEC, should be over 65 percent.

The official preliminary result should be known in 24 to 48 hours.

Senegalese presidential election started at 8:00 a.m. Sunday local time (08:00 GMT) and 6.68 million registered voters were expected to cast their ballots throughout the country and abroad.

Contesting for the presidential seat are incumbent president Macky Sall, former Prime Minister Idrissa Seck, former Foreign Minister Madicke Niang, academician Issa Fall, and former tax inspector Ousmane Sonko. Seck is seen by local media as the main challenger to Sall.

A total of 15,397 polling stations were opened to the Senegalese voters at home, and 746 for those overseas.

Across the country, 10,000 police officers were deployed to ensure security, with about 5,000 observers from the European Union, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, and local civil society organizations.

In 2012, Sall won the second round of the presidential election over then president Abdoulaye Wade, becoming the fourth Senegalese president since independence.

If no candidate can obtain over 50 percent of the vote during the first round, a second round will be held with the top two candidates.

According to officials, polling stations were scheduled to close at 6:00 p.m. local time (18:00 GMT), but voters would be allowed to vote if waiting time exceeded the closing time.

This year's presidential winner will start a reduced term of five years, after a 2016 referendum that cut the presidential term from seven years.