Some 40 000 voting centres in Kenya which opened at 6 am on Tuesday morning closed eleven hours later at 5 pm, but the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said it would allow some polling stations to remain open so that voters in long queues can cast their ballots.

The IEBC said counting would start later on Tuesday and continue the next day. Results are not expected before Wednesday and Kenya’s electoral body has seven days to declare a winner.

Nearly 20-million Kenyans registered to vote in the Presidential and Parliamentary elections which are being conducted using biometric technology. There are more than 40 000 polling stations.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has called on his countrymen to vote peacefully. The 55-year-old leader is vying for a second term against wily politician Raila Odinga, who leads the National Super Alliance (NASA). The 72-year-old Odinga has previously contested three elections and lost.

Kenyatta the son of Kenya’s founding president, Jomo Kenyatta, is at the helm of the Jubilee Party. He has called for peaceful elections and an acceptance of the results amid claims of possible rigging made by his rival, Odinga, and fears of a recurrence of the 2007 violence which left more than 1 000 people dead and 60 000 others displaced.

The 2013 elections won by Kenyatta went smoothly.

On Monday former US president Barack Obama on Kenyans to hold a peaceful and untainted election, adding that leaders must “reject violence and incitement; respect the will of the people”.

Apart from minor skirmishes at some polling stations which opened late, by the close of voting at 5 pm, there were no reports of any violence across the country, where some 150 000 security personnel were deployed to keep the peace.

Earlier IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati said: “We wish to assure you all that for the polling stations that opened late, we will compensate the time by extending the voting period by the same amount of hours that were lost before opening”.

There are six other less prominent candidates in the presidential race. They include Cyrus Jirongo of the United Democratic Party (UDP), Ekuru Aukot of the Thirdway Alliance, Mohammed Abduba Dida of the Alliance for Real Change (ARC), and independent candidates Joseph Nyaga, Michael Wainaina and Japheth Kaluyu.

A candidate must get least 25 percent of the votes in half of Kenya’s 47 counties to avoid a second round of voting.