Sierra Leoneans crowded polling stations yesterday to vote in a close-fought election they hope can rebrand their poor, war-scarred West African state as an emerging democracy with the potential for fast growth from mining and oil.
We feel very happy that Sierra Leoneans are motivated to vote
Election observers reported an enthusiastic turnout from the moment polls opened, with large, eager crowds of voters jostling outside balloting points in schools and other public venues in the steamy seaside capital Freetown and across the nation.
The presidential and parliamentary polls, the third held since the end of the 1991-2002 conflict, pit President Ernest Bai Koroma and his ruling All People’s Congress (APC) against challenger Julius Maada Bio, a former junta leader who represents the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).
“I want to vote ... let us have good leaders to develop the country,” said Fafata Kamara, a catering worker, clutching her plastic voter registration card in a long line outside the Cardiff Primary School in west Freetown.
The elections are being held amid rising expectations that foreign-run iron ore mining and oil developments can start lifting Sierra Leone’s 5.5 million people out of poverty and help the country shed its past image as a “blood diamonds” battleground for rebels and child soldiers.
The vote is expected to be close. Former insurance executive Koroma, 59, who wrested the presidency from the SLPP in a hotly disputed 2007 vote, is considered the narrow favourite above Bio, a 48-year-old retired army brigadier who was involved in two military takeovers in the turbulent 1990s.
Koroma, wearing a white robe, voted in a west Freetown polling station set up in an unfinished building, where he was greeted by supporters chanting “world best, world best!”
“We feel very happy that Sierra Leoneans are motivated to vote,” the president said, adding the election had been peaceful so far and praising the presence of international observers.
His rival Bio, also wearing white, cast his ballot outside a west Freetown school, in a makeshift polling station made from blue plastic sheeting and poles, with simple cardboard voting booths.