Sierra Leone may need run-off poll

FREETOWN,Sierra Leone-Sierra Leone counted votes on Sunday from its first elections since U.N. peacekeepers left two years ago and early results showed a run-off might be needed to choose the new president.On the streets of the dilapidated capital Freetown, people huddled around radios in shops and kiosks as local networks broadcast initial returns from Saturday's presidential and parliamentary polls.Voters turned out in huge numbers on Saturday for elections billed as a test of the West African country's stability after an 11-year civil war fueled by "blood diamonds" and infamous for its brutality.
Unofficial results showed Ernest Bai Koroma of the opposition All People's Congress (APC) comfortably ahead in Freetown and the north of the ex-British colony, which contain about half its 2.6 million voters.With more than 5 percent of votes tallied, the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) candidate, 69-year-old Vice President Solomon Berewa, was performing more strongly in the south, populated by the Mende ethnic group.The National Electoral Commission Chairperson Christiana Thorpe hailed the process as "credible and transparent" and said the first official returns would be announced on Monday.If no presidential candidate wins more than 55 percent, a runoff will be held in September."It looks like we will definitely get into a runoff,"said Ransford Wright, coordinator of the Independent Radio Network."SLPP is not making headway in the north, even in the home town of their vice-presidential candidate."Sierra Leone ranks second from bottom of the U.N. Human Development Index. The unemployment rate is about 60 percent and most people survive on less than a dollar a day.Expectations of change,whoever wins,are huge."The war destabilized everything. We need freedom, food, water, electricity and jobs," said Mohamed Ba, sitting outside a wooden kiosk in downtown Freetown, radio in hand."But I don't trust the politicians."
President Tejan Kabbah, re-elected on a wave of post-war euphoria in 2002, is stepping down as required by the constitution amid popular disillusionment at government graft, which many believe has drained away generous foreign aid.Sierra Leone received $1.6 billion in debt relief last year, but still relies on donors for a third of its budget.Foreign observers hailed the elections as a success and contrasted them with other West African polls tarnished by fraud, such as Nigeria's presidential ballot in April."We could see the enthusiasm of the people to go to vote, to participate in the change of this country," said EU mission chief Marie-Anne Isler who put turnout at around 70 percent.Saturday's voting was peaceful. With results expected to trickle in from remote polling stations after heavy seasonal rains, observers expressed concern tensions could yet bubble over."These elections were free and fair but there is still a tense political atmosphere in Freetown," said Eoin Ryan, head of a delegation of European Parliament
members, who said he would recommend an increase in EU aid in the wake of polls.A second round could make a kingmaker of the PMDC leader Charles Margai, a scion of Sierra Leone's most famous political family who split acrimoniously last year from the SLPP, which his uncle founded.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/08/12/sierra.elections.reut/index.html


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