Post date: Nov 17, 2012 11:55:45 PM
Observers report enthusiastic turnout and no violence so far in an election where incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma bids for a second term against ex-military rival Julius Maada Bio.
FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE (NOVEMBER 17, 2012) (REUTERS) - Polling stations closed on Saturday evening (November 17) and counting started after Sierra Leoneans crowded polling stations in a close-fought election they hope can rebrand their poor, war-scarred West African state as an emerging democracy with the potential for fast growth from mining and oil.
Election observers reported an enthusiastic turnout from the moment polls opened, with large, eager crowds of voters jostling outside balloting points in schools and other public venues in the steamy seaside capital Freetown and across the nation.The presidential and parliamentary polls, the third held since the end of the 1991-2002 conflict, pit President Ernest Bai Koroma and his ruling All People's Congress (APC) against challenger Julius Maada Bio, a former junta leader who represents the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP).
The elections are being held amid rising expectations that foreign-run iron ore mining and oil developments can start lifting Sierra Leone's 5.5 million people out of poverty and help the country shed its past image as a "blood diamonds" battleground for rebels and child soldiers.
The vote is expected to be close. Former insurance executive Koroma, 59, who wrested the presidency from the SLPP in a hotly disputed 2007 vote, is considered the narrow favourite above Bio, a 48-year-old retired army brigadier who was involved in two military takeovers in the turbulent 1990s.
Koroma, wearing a white robe, voted in a west Freetown polling station set up in an unfinished building, where he was greeted by supporters chanting "world best, world best!"
His rival Bio, also wearing white, cast his ballot outside a west Freetown school, in a makeshift polling station made from blue plastic sheeting and poles, with simple cardboard voting booths.
To win outright, a candidate must gain 55 percent of the vote and the race may well go to a second round. With rivalry between the APC and the SLPP running high, there are concerns a close result could ignite violence.
The elections in the former British colony will be one of the most closely observed inAfrica this year by monitors from the European Union, the Commonwealth and theAfrican Union.
The chief EU election observer, Richard Howitt, said that apart from some polling stations opening late, there had been no reports so far of any serious disruptions or violence.