SierraLeoneDecides2023: President Bio in early lead as electoral commission announces partial results

President Julius Bio has taken an early lead in the presidential election in Sierra Leone, provisional results published by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ESCL) showed 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.

ECSL CEC & National Returning Officer’s Statement on the Release of Partial Elections Results on the Conduct of the June 24th 2023 ????????Elections pic.twitter.com/ZB1B3URu9x

— abdul rashid (@abdulrashid_99) June 26, 2023

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.

Tension

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

Mr Kamara said on Twitter that live bullets were fired at his office inside the party headquarters.

Live from my party office. People laying on the floor and the military has surrounded the building. Live bullets fired at my private office at the Part headquarters. This is an assassination attempt. @UKinSierraLeone @_AfricanUnion @USEmbFreetown Live shots at my door. Foreign… pic.twitter.com/ad21VISNiA

— SamuraKamara2023 (@samurakamara201) June 25, 2023

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.

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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.

Contest

Apart from Messrs 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 councillors in what was the fifth election since the end of the country’s civil war, 21 years ago.

PREMIUM TIMES understands that tallying of the remaining votes is ongoing across the different regions in the West African country as of press time Monday night.