By Hasbin Shaw in Freetown, Sierra Leone
With none of the 16 political parties receiving the 55 percent of the valid votes cast during the March 7 polls to declare a winner, the National Returning Officer of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), N’faAlie Conteh yesterday declared a run-off between the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) and the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).
“In exercise of the powers conferred upon me as Chief Electoral Commissioner/Chairman and National Returning Officer of the National Returning Officer of the NEC by Section 52(2) and 94(4) of the Public Elections Act, 2012 and section 42(3) of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991, I Mohamed N’fa-Alie Conteh, do hereby declare that since none of the candidates of the parties for the presidential election received 55% of the valid vote cast pursuant to section 43(2)(e) and (f) of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991, there will be a second election (runoff) exclusively between the All People’s Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate Dr. Samura Kamara and the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) Presidential Candidate Julius Maada Bio,” said N’fa Conteh said at NEC headquarters in Freetown.
VOTES TALLY IN SIERRA LEONE ELECTIONS
Polling in the run-off will be conducted nationwide on Tuesday March 27, 2018, according to NEC.
Opposition leader Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s Party led the 16 candidates with 43.3 percent (1,097,482 votes) of the valid votes cast. The runner-up Samura Kamara of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) party took 42.7 percent (1,082,748 votes) of valid votes tallied, according to results announced by NEC.
The National Returning Officer said that after deliberations with political parties requesting recounts, the Commission ordered recounts in 154 polling stations, adding that results from these polling stations are not included in the results.
“The results from 221 polling stations were excluded, including where the votes cast exceeded the number of registered voters (including voters included on a supplementary list). Accordingly, pursuant to section 87(2) of the Public Elections Act, 2012, the result of those polling stations are declared null and void and are not included in this result,” he said.
He said following counting and tallying, the number of invalid votes cast at the presidential election was 139,427, adding that the number of valid votes is 2,537,122.
Number of valid votes cast for each candidate, and the percentage of the valid votes received
