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Bloomberg
Voters in Sierra Leone are going to the polls to elect a successor for President Ernest Bai Koroma in a campaign where an unprecedented number of political parties is making the outcome too close to call.
As Koroma nears the end of his second five-year term, 16 parties are competing in the elections in the West African nation. His successor will face the tough challenge of reviving an economy that’s struggling to recover from the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola and an iron-ore slump. “There are certain things that aren’t going right,†Adama Deen, 38, said as he stood in line to vote at a polling station in the capital, Freetown. “We need change.â€
Koroma chose former Foreign Affairs Minister Samura Kamara as the ruling All People’s Congress candidate to compete against the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party’s Julius Maada Bio. While the two parties have dominated politics since independence, a newcomer, the National Grand Coalition, is expected to win a significant amount of votes, raising the probability of a runoff as no candidate is expected to secure 55 percent in the first round.