{"id":407414,"date":"2018-03-07T10:59:17","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T10:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=407414"},"modified":"2018-03-07T10:59:17","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T10:59:17","slug":"sierra-leone-votes-new-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/03\/sierra-leone-votes-new-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Leone votes for new President"},"content":{"rendered":"

Voting is under way in Sierra Leone, where more than three million people are eligible to choose a new president, parliament and local councillors.<\/p>\n

In the capital, Freetown, long queues could be seen at polling stations even before dawn.<\/p>\n

President Ernest Bai Koroma is stepping down after serving two five-year terms.<\/p>\n

His chosen successor, Samura Kamara, is being challenged by 15 other candidates – many of them promising to tackle endemic corruption and poverty.<\/p>\n

Mr Kamara of the All Peoples Congress (APC) is one of three frontrunners – the others are Julius Maada Bio of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and former UN diplomat Kandeh Yumkella of the newly-formed National Grand Coalition (NGC).<\/p>\n

One of the greatest challenges for the new leader will be to reconstruct a healthcare system following the huge Ebola outbreak in 2014 that killed nearly 4,000 people.<\/p>\n

Only 200 doctors serve a country of seven million people.<\/p>\n

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The Commonwealth’s chief election observer, former Ghanaian President John Mahama, told the BBC there were signs it would be peaceful.<\/p>\n

“People are going about their business. They don’t have that anxiety or fear that there’s going to be any explosion taking place,” he said.<\/p>\n

He added that if “everybody plays their part” they will be one step closer to “consolidating democracy in Sierra Leone”.<\/p>\n

Mr Mahama said that candidates had signed a peace pledge in the run-up to the election.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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