No clear winner in Sierra Leone election
Presidential runoff expected in two weeks
March 2, 1996
Web posted at: 11:55 p.m. EST (0455 GMT)FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (CNN) -- Sierra Leone will have to hold its embattled presidential elections again. No candidate captured an outright majority in last week's race, the electoral commission announced Saturday.
"None of the candidates obtained the 55 percent as required by decree and the constitution," said James Jonah, head of the Interim National Election Commission. "As a result, there will have to be a runoff."
Under the constitution, the runoff should be held within two weeks of the elections.
The elections, held Monday and Tuesday to end four years of military rule, were the West African nation's first multi-party poll since 1967. The elections were planned for one day, but violence on Monday prompted authorities to extend the voting for another day.
In a broadcast, Jonah said the leader of the country's oldest party, the Sierra Leone's People's Party (SLPP), won the most votes but not enough to declare a majority.
Ahmed Tejan Kabbah (SLPP), a 60-year-old former U.N. official, and John Karefa-Smart (UNPP), an 80-year-old physician, led a parade of 13 presidential aspirants, Jonah said.
The SLPP also topped the parliamentary elections, stealing a 15 percent edge over its nearest rival, UNPP. Jonah said five of the 13 parties that contested the elections would be represented in the 80-seat assembly on a proportional basis.
"According to the (electoral) decree, the parties require a threshold of five percent to be represented in parliament," Jonah said.
About 60 percent of those eligible to vote reportedly turned up at the polls, an impressive showing for a country which has been in the throes of a civil war for the last five years.
Earlier this week, at least four political parties asked that the vote be scrapped, claiming that the elections were fraudulent.
International observers, however, said the electoral process appeared fair, in spite of violence -- blamed on rebels -- that killed eight people and injured some 13 others during the elections.
Rebels of the Revolutionary United Front, who have been waging a five-year civil war, boycotted the elections but began peace talks with the military government on ending the conflict.
The negotiations in Ivory Coast broke off inconclusively on Saturday after rebels rejected the elections and the government's call for a cease-fire.
The civil war has claimed more than 10,000 lives and destroyed entire villages, forcing a reported third of the country's 4.5 million people to flee their homes.
Last year, Sierra Leone was ranked by the United Nations as the least developed country in the world after Niger.
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