A Sierra Leone woman casts her vote in presidential and parliamentary elections at a polling station in Freetown, Sierra Leone, yesterday. FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP):
Sierra Leone held its first presidential elections yesterday since United Nations peacekeepers withdrew two years ago, a historic poll that many hope will show this country can change power peacefully after being ravaged by coups and a long, diamond-fueled war.
Queuing in long lines before dawn with umbrellas under drizzling rain, voters chose among seven candidates vying for the nation's top post. Electoral officials said balloting had gone smoothly, with no reports of violence.
The most crucial period for the war-battered nation may come months down the road, when the public begins expecting real change from their new government. Despite progress since the war ended in 2002, many of the root problems that caused the war - corruption, poverty and unemployment - remain, analysts say.
Yesterday's victor must take more than 55 per cent of the presidential vote to avoid a run-off between the top two finishers.
Vice President and ruling party candidate Solomon Berewa told reporters after casting his ballot: "I am confident I'll win."
Front-runner
Berewa, 69, is considered the front-runner. His biggest challenger is 54-year-old opposition party chief and businessman Ernest Bai Koroma. Also running: Charles Francis Margai, 62, a lawyer and former minister who heads a party that broke away from the ruling coalition 15 months ago.
Some 572 contenders are also vying for 112 parliamentary seats on yesterday's ballot.
"I want change and development," said Jaclin Johnson as he waited to vote at a public-school building in the capital, Freetown. "If the elections go on peacefully, there will be development."
That's the hope, at least.
Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked second to last on the U.N. Human Development Index - 176 out of 177 nations. Though its infrastructure has been restored to pre-war levels and donors last yearforgave US$1.6 billion in crippling debt, the country has struggled to fight poverty and in particular corruption, considered a serious drag on economic growth. Transparency International ranks Sierra Leone one of the most corrupt nations on earth -148 out of 163 surveyed.
Sierra Leone exported US$125 million worth of diamonds in 2006. Those are official figures, however, and advocacy groups believe real export levels are two to three times that, with the rest being ferreted out of the country via smugglers.
The Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group warned in a report issued ahead of the vote that "most of the problems that existed before the war remain" - poverty, bad governance, corruption, massive unemployment and disillusioned youth. Corruption within the diamond industry, it said, "is extremely dangerous, as impoverished diamond diggers were among the most enthusiastic" rebel recruits during the war.
