Sierra Leone election put back after court challenge

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Sierra Leone’s presidential election, which has been delayed by a legal challenge and allegations of fraud, will now take place on Saturday, the National Electoral Commission said.

The face-off between opposition leader Julius Maada Bio and ruling party standard-bearer Samura Kamara, a former foreign minister, was to have taken place on Tuesday but was delayed after a complaint from a member of Kamara’s All People’s Congress.

Maada Bio, a former military head of state, won the first round of voting which took place on March 7 but did not gain the required 55 percent support for an outright victory. Sixteen candidates were on the ballot paper.

The NEC had requested that the elections be pushed back four days because its preparations had been interrupted by a High Court injunction imposed on the election on Saturday. That injunction was lifted on Monday when the commission announced the new date.

Peaceful vote

President Ernest Bai Koroma is stepping aside and the March 7 vote to replace him unfolded mostly peacefully but was marred by allegations of fraud in some districts and complaints of police harassment against the electoral commission.

Still, the orderly nature of the election is seen as a positive sign for a country whose 1990s civil war was characterized by the sale of conflict diamonds and the recruitment of child soldiers.