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Sierra Leone: Tight race expected in Saturday’s Presidential election
Similar initiatives were used in recent elections in Senegal and Liberia.
“This process will give legitimacy and integrity to the elections, to the entire elections process because, like I said to you, it’s real-time analysis,” said Ngolo Katta, spokesperson for National Election Watch.
Sierra Leone has sent 1,000 local observers around the country and international observers have been sent from the African Union, regional bloc – the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Commonwealth, and Carter Center.
“As far as humanly possible, everything is ready for the elections,” Christiana Thorpe, chairperson of the electoral body said in a radio interview.
She said parliamentary results would be available as soon as a constituency had been counted, but “no result will be announced for the president until all results had been tallied.”
To win in the first round, a presidential candidate needs at least 55 percent of votes. Some 2.6 million voters have registered and final results are expected by November 26.
Copyright 2012 AFP
