Sierra Leone: presidential run-off in two weeks after first-round standoff

Sierra Leone: Runoff presidential election in two weeks after first-round Standoff

 

After the first round of the Sierra Leone presidential election could not produce a clear winner on Wednesday, the National Electoral Commission chair Mohammed Nfa’ali Conteh last night said there will be a runoff presidential election in two weeks.

The country’s 16 candidates failed to clinch the 55 percent of votes necessary to win in the first round.

 “There will be second election, runoff, exclusively between the All People’s Congress presidential candidate Dr. Samura Matthew Wilson Kamara, and the Sierra Leone People’s Party presidential candidate Julius Maada Bio,” announced National Electoral Commission chair Mohammed Nfa’ali Conteh at a Tuesday press conference.

Current president Ernest Bai Koroma of the APC must step down this year after serving two terms.

Kamara, the former minister who is the ruling APC’s presidential pick, took 42.7 percent of the vote, slightly behind opposition SLPP’s Bio, who took 43.3 percent of the ballots. The result, announced one week after polls closed, following a tally process that was hit by numerous allegations of irregularities.

The National Electoral Commission recounted votes at 154 polling stations, while votes at 221 total polling stations were declared null and void due to overvoting.

This is the second time Bio has tried for the country’s top government job, after losing to current president Koroma in 2012. Despite Bio’s slight lead on the ruling party this time, reactions to the announcement were subdued from SLPP supporters, who hoped for a first round win.

“I’m not really happy regarding the outcome of the results because we are expecting victory tonight,” said Mutaru Kamara, an SLPP supporter who gathered with a small crowd outside of Bio’s house on the outskirts of Freetown.