Senegal votes for new parliament
Campaigning was marred by a tragedy on July 15 when eight people were killed as rival supporters clashed during Senegal's League Cup final, and a stampede caused a wall to fall on escaping fans.
There are a record 47 lists of candidates contesting the election, with 165 lawmakers to be selected for Senegal's parliament.
Senegalese voters cast ballots on Sunday to elect a new parliament, a test run for President Macky Sall ahead of the 2019 presidential election.
Most of the 14,000 polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0800 GMT) but there were delays in several places after some sites were hit by a violent overnight storm, local media reported.
Polling ends at 6:00 pm and the first results are expected early Monday. More than 6.2 million people in the west African nation are registered to vote.
Sall is seeking to bolster his parliamentary majority as he eyes a second term, while his predecessor Abdoulaye Wade, 91, attempts to drum up support for his own list of candidates and for his son, Karim, who is waiting in the wings with eyes on the top job.
"We aren't talking any longer about July 30, but of 2019," Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, who is running for a seat with Sall's coalition, declared at a rally.
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