The Gambia has banned the internet and international phone calls as presidential elections are held in the West African state.
Officials have also banned demonstrations to prevent unrest after the elections.
Estate agent Adama Barrow is challenging incumbent President Yahya Jammeh, who says divine intervention will give him a fifth term.
The Gambia has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence.
Several previously better-known opposition leaders are in jail after taking part in a rare protest in April.
Observers from the European Union (EU) and the West African regional bloc Ecowas are not attending the vote.
Gambian officials expressed opposition to the presence of Western observers, but the EU says it is staying away out of concern about the fairness of the voting process.
The African Union, however, has dispatched a handful of observers to supervise the vote.
The Gambia, a tiny country with a population of less than two million, is surrounded on three sides by Senegal and has a short Atlantic coastline, which is popular with European tourists.
The results of the election are not expected to be announced immediately.