About 3,374 registered voters out of a total population of about 8 million Sierra Leoneans will have another opportunity to elect a new president, members of parliament, district, mayoral, or district council chair, and those into the council seats as they go to the polls on Saturday.
The polls opened at 7 in the morning and are expected to close at 5 in the evening, with the election taking place in 3,630 polling centres and 11,832 polling units.
The president is elected by popular vote for a five-year term in a two-round absolute majority system of 55 percent.
Sierra Leone operates a unilateral system of government, and the battle for the seat will be between the incumbent president, Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People Party (SLPP), and Samura Kamara of the All-Peoples Congress (APC).
The president’s tenure in office is limited to two five-year terms. Both candidates are seeking reelection.
The country had its first general elections as an independent nation on May 27, 1961, and this election will be the sixth since the end of the civil war in January 2002.
