SIERRA LEONE: PEOPLE IN SIERRA LEONE GO TO THE POLLS IN A SECOND ROUND OF ELECTIONS TO RESTORE CIVILIAN RULE
Record ID:
639848
SIERRA LEONE: PEOPLE IN SIERRA LEONE GO TO THE POLLS IN A SECOND ROUND OF ELECTIONS TO RESTORE CIVILIAN RULE
- Title: SIERRA LEONE: PEOPLE IN SIERRA LEONE GO TO THE POLLS IN A SECOND ROUND OF ELECTIONS TO RESTORE CIVILIAN RULE
- Date: 15th March 1996
- Summary: FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE (MARCH 15, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE VIEW OF STREET IN FREETOWN 0.07 2. SV VARIOUS OF CROWDS GATHERING OUTSIDE POLLING STATION (2 SHOTS) 0.23 3. SV/SCU VARIOUS OF PEOPLE REGISTERING AND VOTING (6 SHOTS) 1.02 4. SV AHMAD TEJAN KABBAH, CANDIDATE FOR SIERRA LEONE PEOPLE'S PARTY AMD FRONT-RUNNER IN FIRST ROUND, SPEAKING: "I'M TO GET A VERY STRONG MANDATE TO MANAGE THIS COUNTRY FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS." (ENGLISH) 1.13 5. LV/SV PEOPLE QUEUING TO VOTE (2 SHOTS) 1.25 6. SV SAMUEL JONES, UNABLE TO VOTE AS HE WAS LISTED ON SUPPLEMENTARY REGISTER COMPLETED TOO LATE FOR PRESENTATION TO THE GOVERNMENT, SAYING HE WAS FRUSTRATED HE WAS NOT ALLOWED TO VOTE (ENGLISH) 1.33 7. SV VICTOR REIDER, ELECTORAL COMMISSION OBSERVER, SAYING I THINK IT IS SIMPLE IT WAS ANNOUNCED ALL THOSE WHOSE NAMES WERE NOT ON THE LIST WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO VOTE (ENGLISH) 2.02 8. SLV/SV PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES, AHMAD TEJAN KABBAH OF THE SIERRA LEONE PEOPLE'S PARTY (SLPP) AND JOHN KAREFA-SMART (WHITE SHIRT, GLASSES) OF THE UNITED NATIONAL PEOPLE'S PARTY (UNPP), ADDRESSING ANGRY CROWDS OF DISQUALIFIED VOTERS GATHERED OUTSIDE ELECTORAL COMMISSION, ASKING CROWD TO BE PATIENT (ENGLISH) (2 SHOTS) 2.19 10. SV PEOPLE VOTING (2 SHOTS) 2.32 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 30th March 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE
- City:
- Country: AFRICA Sierra Leone
- Reuters ID: LVAC8R47YLAXOGFQLW7KW2THBBYF
- Story Text: INTRO: The people of Sierra Leone have gone to the polls in elections which will restore civilian rule.
-------------------------------------------------------------- The people of Sierra Leone in West Africa voted on Friday (March 15) in a second round of elections to restore civilian rule. But thousands of people who had registered at the last minute were unable to cast their votes.
Long queues formed during the morning but most polling stations were almost empty by the afternoon.
Voting in the run-off between Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and John Karefa-Smart was peaceful despite threats by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) to disrupt the election.
Electoral commission chairman Janes Jonah said some 92,000 people -- nearly 6 percent of the electorate -- could not vote as they were listed on a supplementary register completed too late for presentation to the government. Most voted in the first round.
Tejan Kabbah, front-runner in the first round, said he believed military leader Julius Maada Bio would hand over power as promised, and the rebels were prepared to continue peace talks with him.
"The head of state Maada Bio has the support of the military and has sufficient control over his men that they will go along with him and hand over power to a civilian government," he told Reuters as he cast his vote. "The RUF have said that if I win they will talk with me to bring about peace," he added.
Military sources said rebels killed 35 people on Tuesday in a vehicle travelling outside the southern town of Bo.
Bo residents have reported civilians arriving at the hospital with hands or noses hacked off or intimidatory messages burned or slashed into their skin.
Residents of inland towns, including those where rebels or renegade soldiers opposed to the elections disrupted the first round, said polling went smoothly.
Troops and police protected polling stations but deployment was not heavy. Jonah thanked the army for its cooperation.
Tejan Kabbah, head of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) took nearly 36 percent of first round votes but fell short of the 55 percent needed to win outright.
Karefa-Smart, head of the United National People's Party (UNPP) and a minister in the first government after independence from Britain in 1961, won just over 22 percent of first round votes.
The two men discussed forgoing the second round and forming a government of national unity but negotiations broke down.
Sierra Leone's four million people are among the world's poorest despite the country's mineral wealth.
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