As expected, the 133 cardinals who entered the Sistine Chapel 7 May failed to elect the next pope on their first ballot.
After celebrating Mass for the election of a pope, processing into the Sistine Chapel and swearing a solemn oath of perpetual secrecy on the conclave proceedings, the cardinal electors cast their first ballot in the conclave.
The ballot, however, failed to reach the two-thirds supermajority, or 89 votes, that is required for a new pope to be elected.
With the largest number of cardinal electors ever to vote in a conclave, and therefore the most votes to count, the black smoke arrived two hours later than the expected 7 pm Rome time.
Only one ballot was cast on the first day of the conclave. On following days, up to four ballots are cast each day. If, after three days of voting, they have not elected anyone, the cardinals can take a maximum of one day for prayer and informal discussion.
Pope Benedict XVI was elected on the fourth ballot of the 2005 conclave and Pope Francis was elected on the fifth ballot of the conclave in 2013.
An estimated 30,000 people gathered in St Peter’s Square the first evening of the conclave even though they did not expect to see white smoke emerging from a chimney on top of the Sistine Chapel, signaling that a pope had been elected.