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Sierra Leone: Voting concludes peacefully in presidential election – awaiting results
Voter casts ballot in Freetown, Sierra Leone
Citizens of Sierra Leone chose Saturday between keeping an incumbent president who has expanded health care and paved roads or electing an opposition candidate to lead this war-scarred nation still recovering a decade later despite its mineral riches.
The election marked the third presidential vote since the West African nation’s 11-year conflict ended in 2002.
Voters said Saturday they wanted to demonstrate just how far Sierra Leone has come over the past decade by holding a transparent and peaceful vote.
“We’ve been through a lot in the last 20 years. Now we’re trying to move forward,” said Mannah Kpukumu, 36, a civil servant waiting in a line that snaked near a giant cotton tree long before dawn. “We the young guys want employment and to be able to take care of our families.”
National election officials spread that message through posters affixed to buildings and traffic circles throughout the capital of Freetown: “The world is watching us. Let us don’t disappoint them.”
Election workers slept overnight at polling stations and some voters began lining up at 2 a.m. (9 pm EST) in the capital, with chests pressed up against the people in front of them. Those not yet old enough to vote weaved through the crowds selling plastic bags of cold water stacked in buckets on their heads.
Sierra Leone’s chief elections officer Christiana Thorpe said there were reports of some technical problems in the country’s east, including vehicles breaking down while distributing voter materials.
