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Kabbah takes early S. Leone poll lead
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone -- Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has taken a large early lead in the country's general elections, according to reports. The 70-year-old incumbent won 70 percent of the first 35,000 votes counted, Reuters news agency quoted independent radio stations as reporting. Although it was only a small sample of the overall votes cast, Kabbah appears headed to win more than the 55 percent necessary to avoid a runoff. The elections, which drew an estimated 80 percent turnout among the country's 2.3 million voters, is the first in six years in Sierra Leone and is hoped to signal an end to a war-ravaged decade in the West African country. Election monitors said Tuesday's presidential and parliamentary elections were peaceful, and none of the parties have alleged cheating.
The elections were made possible after U.N. peacekeepers disarmed more than 47,000 rebels and pro-government militia fighters. Kabbah has been credited with bringing in the international community to rescue his country from a civil war in which 50,000 are believed to have died. His party, Sierra Leone's People's Party, is predicted to have done well in its stronghold in the southern ethnic Mende heartland as well as the unpredictable Freetown. In second place is Ernest Koroma, 49, of the All People's Congress with 21 percent of the votes reported, Reuters reported. His party had ruled the country for 24 years before being overthrown by the army in 1992 amid accusations of corruption. In third place with just over 6 percent is Johnny Paul Koroma, former head of a military junta that overthrew Kabbah in 1997 and was driven out the next year by a West African force. Rebels of the Revolutionary United Front boycotted the last election in 1996, when some rebels hacked off voters' hands as punishment for taking part. This time the rebels have their own party, although their leader, Foday Sankoh, has been detained since May 2000 and is on trial for murder. Pallo Bangura, an academic and longtime political figure who claims little knowledge of the rebels' past crimes, is their presidential candidate. Their vote is predicted to have collapsed, especially in their heartland in the north. Five other presidential candidates are contending the election in the former British colony, which gained independence in 1961. More than 250 international observers are monitoring the election, and a major U.N. troop presence -- comprising more than 17,500 peacekeepers from Kenya, Bangladesh, Nigeria and other countries -- is in place. |
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