Sierra Leone President Maada Bio well ahead in vote count
Incumbent President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, casts his vote in Freetown on June 24, 2023 during the presidential vote. Sierra Leoneans began voting Saturday in fiercely contested presidential and parliamentary elections amid a cost-of-living crisis that helped spark deadly riots last year.
Freetown,
President Julius Maada Bio on Monday looked on course for re-election in Sierra Leone after the electoral commission said he had a clear lead with 60 percent of the votes counted.
Bio had garnered 55.86 percent of ballots cast -- more than the 55 percent required for victory after Saturday's first round of voting.
The incumbent's 1,067,666 votes put him well ahead of his main rival Samura Kamara, who had 793,751 votes or 41.53 percent, the commission said.
Final results were expected within 48 hours, said election commission chief Mohamed Kenewui Konneh.
Some 3.4 million people were registered to vote in Saturday's election.
Twelve men and one woman stood for president, but Bio's main challenger is Kamara of the opposition All People's Congress (APC).
Bio, of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), narrowly beat Kamara in a runoff in 2018.
The president, 59, a former coup leader in the 1990s, has championed education and women's rights in his first civilian term.
Kamara, 72, a former foreign and finance minister, is facing a protracted trial over allegations that he misappropriated public funds as foreign minister, a case he says is politically motivated.
Police fired tear gas at the main opposition party's headquarters on Sunday evening, authorities said, as voters awaited the election results.
One woman died in the incidents, an APC spokesperson and the woman's son said.
