Sierra Leone Elections - Sierra Leonean voters will be called upon again to cast ballots to elect a new President.
March 27 runoff date was announced by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) on Tuesday evening after declaring final results from the March 7 vote.
According to the results, the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) won by close to 1.1 million votes followed by the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC). Given that none of the top two candidates got the 55% mark, a runoff was required by law within two weeks of the final declaration.
Julius Maada Bio of the SLPP is taking his second shot at the presidency as a civilian. He lost the last polls to outgoing Ernest Bai Koroma in 2011. He has also previously served as a military Head of State. Samura Kamara, on the other hand, is the immediate past Foreign Affairs minister of the country.
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Final Results 100% of the national votes processed (13 March 2018)
Julius Maada Bio (SLPP) – 1,097,482 (43%)
Samura Kamara (APC) – 1,082,748 (42%)
Yumkella Kandeh (NGC) – 174,014 (6.9%)
Samuel Sam-Sumana (C4C) – 87,720 (3.4%)
Civil society projects election run-off
A coalition of local and international civil society organization that has been observing the Sierra Leone elections has projected an election run-off, saying none of the candidates will secure the 55% constitutional threshold required to be declared an outright winner.
National Elections Watch (NEW) says it deployed over 10,000 election observers at every polling station in Sierra Leone and assigned 3 observers at the regional tallying centers.
Acknowledging the fact that only the National Electoral Commission in Sierra Leone can declare official results, NEW says it used Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) tool, which provides accurate and timely information on the conduct of an election and counting at polling stations.
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