Sierra Leone's General Election Results Due in a Week

On Saturday, Sierra Leone kicked off its presidential, parliamentary, and local council elections, with over 3.3 million registered voters casting their ballots across the country.

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Voters queued in over 11,000 polling stations that were opened from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time. A total of 13 registered political parties, including the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) and the main opposition All People's Congress (APC) participated in the elections.

President Julius Maada Bio is seeking a second and final term as he is contesting against the main opposition candidate Samura Kamara whom he defeated in the 2018 elections.

To be declared the winner of the presidential race, the leading candidate must secure 55 percent of the votes cast; otherwise, a second round of voting will be held. 

Counting would start after the polls were closed at 5 p.m., with the official results expected within a week.  

Meanwhile, opposition leader Kamara denounced that the Army surrounded his party headquarters in Freetown and used live ammunition and tear gas on Sunday, when he was holding a press conference attended by national and international journalists.

Kamara maintains that the APC "is on an irreversible path to overwhelming victory" and that his party will not accept "any biased, manipulated or unverified result."

This is the fifth election Sierra Leone has conducted since the civil war that ravaged the country. Tens of thousands of people were killed during the civil war from 1991 to 2002.