Senegal’s Opposition leader Bassirou Diomaye Faye has emerged as favourite to win the presidential election, after several rivals conceded.

Millions of Voters who had a choice of 19 candidates took part in a peaceful vote on Sunday, and early results also led to five opposition candidates declaring 44-year-old Mr Faye, who had been in jail only days before the vote, the winner.

Following three years of turbulence and opposition protests against the incumbent President, Macky Sall, who was not on the ballot for the first time in Senegal’s history, it is not clear how many of the 15,633 polling stations have been counted so far, but Final provisional results are expected by Tuesday.

However, the ruling party’s choice, 62-year-old Amadou Ba, has rejected reports of defeat insisting that he expects to contest a run-off vote to decide a winner.