President Bio leads after 60% of votes counted in Sierra Leone polls

By Aurore Bonny

DOUALA, Cameroon (AA) – The Sierra Leone Electoral Commission announced partial presidential election results on Monday, with Julius Maada Bio, 59, the incumbent president and leader of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), leading with over a million votes after 60% of votes were counted.

He is followed by Samura Kamara, 72, the leader of the All People Congress (APC), who received 783,751 votes.

"The results detailed below are partial and do not represent the complete outcome of the Presidential election," the Electoral Commission said in a statement, adding that final verified results will be announced within the next 48 hours.

These results for the presidential election held on June 14 are "partial" and "represent 60% of the total polling stations results processed in each district," said the statement.

Bio is one of 13 candidates running for re-election. The electoral authority has not yet released the turnout rate for the 3.4 million people who were called upon to choose their next president.

The election authority released partial results just hours after the two main parties announced their victories.

The APC declared victory on Sunday evening, prompting supporters to gather outside the party's headquarters in the capital Freetown.

The local police said in a late Sunday statement that they used tear gas to disperse opposition members who were causing a disturbance "by announcing to the public that they had won" the general elections held on Saturday.

The situation had become "unbearable," the police claimed, adding that they were forced to use tear gas to disperse the crowd that was causing problems on the road.

Members of the APC, for their part, condemned the shooting, displaying an image of a wounded woman in the party headquarters.

"We are under fire. It is tear gas and what sounds like live rounds. There are about 20 of us on the ground in one office. The shots are still being fired," Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, APC mayor of Freetown, tweeted on Sunday, pleading for support in the aftermath of the general elections.

Kamara also stated on social media that bullets had been fired at his party's headquarters.

"I have been barricaded in my APC party headquarters during my live press conference. Live bullets and tear gas (shells) fires at my offices by government forces," he was quoted in a press statement issued by the party, which resulted in one fatality.