Senegal's presidential election ended around 9:00 PM (21:00 GMT) Sunday and the counting of ballots began immediately.

The election started at 8:00 AM (08:00 GMT) and has been scheduled to end at 6:00 PM (18:00 GMT), but the process had been slower than expected.

Representatives of various parties or candidates, observers and media watched the counting process.

Fifteen candidates, including incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade, are standing for the competition, but only three contestants are believed to have the capacity to challenge Wade, who is in his 80s.

They are Idrissa Seck, former prime minister, Moustapha Niass, the first prime minister during Wade's presidency, and Ousmane Tanor Dieng, leader of the Socialist Party.

One candidate needs to gain more than half of the votes to win outright in the first round of voting, according to the country's election rules, otherwise a second round of polls will be held.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2007)