Senegal's presidential candidates on Friday gathered crowds of supporters for their final rallies, marking the end of a rushed campaign for what is considered an unprecedented election after weeks of political crisis.
Seven million people are eligible to vote Sunday in the traditionally stable West African nation set to become an oil producer, but where more than a third live in poverty and half the population are aged under 20.
After the last-minute withdrawal of two candidates, 17 contenders remain in the race for president, with campaigning officially due to end at midnight Friday.
The winner will be tasked with steering the nation out of years of tension and managing revenues from recently discovered oil and gas reserves.
No incumbent
President Macky Sall, in power since 2012, is not standing again, making it the first Senegalese poll where the incumbent is not on the ballot.
Two former tax inspectors are considered the favourites to win - the governing coalition's candidate and ex-prime minister Amadou Ba, 62, and anti-establishment figure Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 43.
Faye was only released from prison last week, nearly a week into the electoral campaign, together with popular and charismatic firebrand Ousmane Sonko, who is barred from standing but backs Faye.
Disqualified candidate Karim Wade, the son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, Friday told his supporters to vote for Faye - giving the opposition candidate a potentially significant last-minute endorsement.
Election favourites
In the early evening, thousands of Faye's supporters holding up his picture gathered at a stadium in the western town of Mbour, where he was set to hold his final rally, AFP photographers reported.
In Dakar's Place de la Nation, hundreds of supporters of Amadou Ba awaited his arrival to the tune of celebratory music, an AFP journalist saw.
"We know that these are the two who will emerge if there is no tsunami," said El Hadji Mamadou Mbaye, a political science lecturer and researcher at the University of Saint-Louis, referring to Ba and Faye.
"The whole issue will come down to the third (place candidate) who will be the referee," he added.
Political 'earthquake'
A victory for Faye would represent a political "earthquake," Mbaye said, with the arrival of "a player who does not come from the system".
The former mayor of the capital Dakar , Khalifa Sall, 68, has been mentioned as a possible third place candidate in the first round.
A second-round vote is likely given the number of candidates and the need for an absolute majority, but no date has yet been set.
International partners will be closely monitoring the vote in the country of 18 million.
Provisional results could be known as early as Sunday night.
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