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Small numbers of voters are showing up for Togo's presidential election, which kicked off earlier on Saturday, especially in the country's capital, Lome.
The election started at 7: 00 GMT on Saturday and is expected to come to an end at 16: 00 GMT.
Togo's election commission head Issifou Taffa Tabiou said the election turnout would be declared when polling stations closed and votes were counted.
Nevertheless, a member of the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy said there were more voters in the presidential election in 2010.
"In 2010, I was at a polling station and voters flocked to voting booths," the member said. "This year, voting proceeds normally, but I admit that the crowds are not there," he told The Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity.
He said incumbent President Faure Gnassingbe and opposition leader Jean Pierre Fabre cast their votes very early in the day to encourage voters to go to polling stations.
Koffitse Aziable, an observer commissioned by NGO Vision of African Peoples, said polling stations have opened on time.
Some voters interviewed by AA, meanwhile, said they were satisfied with the electoral process so far.
"I cast my ballot in just two minutes," Kombate William told AA.
He added, however, that some voters had difficulty picking a candidate."
Nearly 3.5 million voters are eligible to cast their ballot in nearly 4,112 polling centers on Saturday.
Five candidates are running for the top spot in Saturday's vote, including incumbent Faure Gnassingbe and opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre, who heads the National Alliance for Change.
Running in the polls are also Gerry Taama, the head of the New Togolese Commitment Party, Tchassona Traore, the candidate of the Citizenship Movement for Democracy and Development and Aime Gogue of the Democratic Alliance for Comprehensive Development.
The Economic Community of West African States has sent 100 observers to oversee Saturday's vote.
www.aa.com.tr/en - Lome
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