Sierra Leone President Julius Bio is currently leading in the presidential election, according to the provisional results published by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ESCL) showed on Monday.
The ESCL said it had so far tallied about 60 per cent of the total votes cast in Saturday’s election.
The first set of results by the electoral commission shows that Mr Bio has 56 per cent of the votes tallied so far while his closest rival, Samura Kamara, of the All People’s Congress (APC), has 42 per cent.
According to the electoral law, in order to win in the first round, a candidate needs more than 55 per cent of the votes.
The election is considered a two-horse race between President Bio, 59, of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and 72-year-old former cabinet minister Samura Kamara, who leads the opposition APC.
The ECSL expects to declare a winner in the next few days, if the elections does not spill into a run-off.
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On Sunday, police in Sierra Leone fired tear gas at the headquarters of the APC in Freetown as voters awaited the results of the keenly contested election.
Kamara said on Twitter that live bullets were fired at his office inside the party headquarters.
But the Police in a statement said members of the APC had paraded through Freetown, “announcing to the public that they had won the election.”
Earlier on Sunday, the Office of National Security had warned party members against declaring results of the elections, which it said, lies with the electoral umpire.
On Sunday, the Police said the APC attracted huge crowd of supporters outside the headquarters, who allegedly “started harassing passers-by.”
Although the election was largely peaceful on Saturday in many parts of Sierra Leone, there was tension in some parts of the northern district and other opposition strongholds.
Apart from Bio and Kamara, other presidential candidates in the elections are Bah Mohamed Chernoh of the National Democratic Alliance; Coker Prince, People’s Democratic Party; Jonjo Mohamed, Citizens Democratic Party; Kabuta Henry, United National Peoples Party; and Kakay Iye, Alliance Democratic Party.
Also on the ballot are Kamara Musa, Peace and Liberation Party; Margai Francis, People’s Movement For Democratic Change; Saccoh Dougakoro, Revolutionary United Front Party; Sandy Patrick, National Unity and Reconciliation Party; Sowa-Turay Mohamed, United Democratic Movement; and Williams Victor, Republic National Independent Party.
In addition to the presidential ballot, Sierra Leonean voters also elected members of parliament and local councilors in what was the fifth election since the end of the country’s civil war, 21 years ago.
