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Sierra Leone: Citizens await election result – incumbent confident of victory
Sierra Leone’s governing party said Monday it was confident that incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma would win the weekend election without the need for a second round.
The announcement came as Sierra Leoneans awaited official results from the country’s National Electoral Commission, which legally has 10 days to announce the results from Saturday’s vote.
Koroma must garner 55 percent of the ballots cast or he will face his main opponent Julius Maada Bio in a second round of voting.
“The electoral laws give NEC 10 days within which to announce the results. We may be lucky that NEC works faster. I do not think there will be surprises,” said Victor Bockarie Foh, National Secretary-General of the ruling All Peoples Congress party.
Earlier in the day, chief election observer Richard Howitt stressed that it was up to the country’s election body to make a decision on when to announce the results.
“Clearly the National Electoral Commission will want to take sufficient time and care to ensure the accurate accounting of the vote but they will want to move as quickly as possible with the announcement of the results before any risks of instability or unrest,” Howitt said.
Sierra Leone’s chief elections officer Christiana Thorpe said that polling “was reported to be peaceful and orderly in almost all polling stations nationwide.”
