Agency Report
Gambians head to polls on Saturday, in the first presidential election in the tiny West African nation since former dictator Yahya Jammeh fled into exile.
The voting will be closely watched as a test of the democratic transition in the country, where Jammeh ruled for 22 years after seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1994.
The ex-autocrat was forced into exile in Equatorial Guinea in January 2017 after Adama Barrow, then a relative unknown, defeated him at the ballot box.
President Barrow, 56, is now running for re-election, and faces five other candidates.
Political veteran Ousainou Darboe is considered the leading opposition candidate.
The 73-year-old is a lawyer who has represented opponents of Jammeh, and who ran for president against the former dictator several times.
He also served as foreign minister and then vice president under Barrow, before stepping down in 2019.
Many voters in the impoverished nation of more than two million people are hoping for an improvement in their living standards.
The Gambia, a sliver of a land about 480 kilometres (300 miles) long, which is surrounded by Senegal, is one of the poorest countries in the world.
About half of the population live on less than $1.90 per day, the World Bank says.
The tourism-dependent economy in the former British colony was also dealt a severe blow by the Covid pandemic.
Barrow is running on a continuity ticket, pointing to infrastructure projects completed under his watch, as well as increased civil liberties.
Polls are due to open at 0800 GMT in The Gambia, and set to close at 1700 GMT.
Each candidate has their own ballot box at Gambian polls, and voters choose their preferred politician by dropping a marble inside one of the boxes.
The unusual voting method is a response to low literacy rates in the country.
Initial results in the one-round presidential election could be announced as early as Sunday.
