Sierra Leone votes in test of post-war recovery

From jungle clearings to city slums, Sierra Leoneans voted in huge numbers yesterday in the first polls since UN peacekeepers left two years ago, hoping to speed their nation's recovery from a 1991-2002 civil war.

Many arrived before dawn and patiently queued for hours in the dilapidated capital Freetown to vote for a new president and 112 parliamentarians. Some sheltered under umbrellas from the drizzle while others clasped radios to their ears.

Five years after the end of the diamond-fuelled war, which killed 50,000 people, Sierra Leone remains the second least developed nation on earth. Most people earn less than a dollar a day and lack basic amenities. Many are hungry for a change.

In the presidential race, Ernest Bai Koroma of the opposition All People's Congress (APC) is expected to mount a strong challenge to Vice President Solomon Berewa, 69, candidate for the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP).

President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, re-elected on a wave of post-war euphoria in 2002, is stepping down as required by the constitution amid anger at corruption, which many voters believe has drained away the country's substantial foreign aid.

"We have diamonds, gold and even oil. We should be one of the richest countries in Africa, but where does the money go?" said Abdul Bassie, a 24-year-old student, after voting in the second city of Bo.

Days of torrential downpours eased yesterday, to the relief of officials who feared the rainy season could disrupt voting. The head of the national electoral commission said only one of 6,176 polling stations had failed to open. Ballots have been transported by trucks, canoes and porters to polling stations in savannah, jungles and mountains.

Some 2.6 million people are registered to vote - roughly half the population - and many arrived early to oversee the work of electoral staff amid concerns over fraud. Aside from a few scuffles, voting was generally peaceful.

Long lines snaked around voting booths in settlements of corrugated iron roofs set deep in the sprawling jungle, a Reuters correspondent travelling by helicopter said.

At one polling station in the second city of Bo, 250 km (155 miles) southeast of Freetown, four-fifths of registered voters had cast their ballots in the first three hours.

Sierra Leone's war, funded by rebel sales of "blood diamonds", was infamous for child soldiers who hacked limbs off civilians. Now young Sierra Leoneans can decide their country's fate, with more than half of voters under 35. Aside from its record on corruption, the SLPP faces a threat from the breakaway PMDC party led by Charles Margai, which is draining support in its traditional southern fiefs, such as Bo.

If no candidate wins more than 55 per cent, a follow-up election will be held, probably in early September. The election commission will announce results as they come in but expects a meaningful trend to take several days to emerge.