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AP
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Senegal's security forces are voting early in a presidential election that has sparked previous protests.

Police and military members voted Saturday. Tommaso Caprioglio, an official with the European Union observation mission, said some 23,000 security personnel were registered to vote.

Riot police fired tear gas Friday at protesters on a main commercial boulevard in the capital after the opposition went ahead with a protest in defiance of a government ban. Another demonstration was expected Saturday.

Demonstrators are calling for the departure of 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade, who is running for a third term in next week's poll.

The increasingly tense atmosphere on the ground has many concerned that there may be unrest if Wade is declared the winner of the vote.