FREETOWN (Reuters) – Provisional results from Sierra Leone’s presidential election showed that President Julius Maada Bio was leading the presidential election with 60% of votes counted, the West African country’s electoral commission said on Monday.
Bio, 59, is running for a second term against 12 opponents. His biggest rival is All People’s Congress’ (APC) candidate Samura Kamara, who narrowly lost to Bio in the last election in 2018.
A provisional results sheet showed Bio had received over 1 million votes so far, compared with just under 800,000 for Kamara. Final verified results will be announced within the next 48 hours, the commission said.
The election has been tense. The APC said their election representatives were attacked and intimidated in three districts on election day. The election commission on Sunday outlined several instances where officials were beaten or intimidated.
A woman was found severely wounded and without a pulse at Sierra Leone’s opposition party headquarters on Sunday after police surrounded the building during a post election news conference, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.
(Reporting by Cooper Inveen; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Estelle Shirbon)
