The opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) has jumped into a 28% lead over the governing Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) after the official announcement of 22.2% of the Presidential run off results in last weeks elections.
APC flag bearer Ernest Bai Koroma (APC) has so far polled 294,498 which is 64% of the 458,206 votes already processed by NEC.
The SLPP flag bearer Vice President Solomon Ekuma Berewa is trailing with 163,708 which is 36 % of the total valid votes processed so far.
APC’s Ernest Koroma now leads with a total of 130,790(one hundred and thirty thousand seven hundred and ninety)
These results exclude Kailahun, Kambia, Koinadugu and Bonthe whose results have not yet reached the NEC headquarters.
Dr Christiana Thorpe stressed that the results are partial ones and some 78% of the3 votes are still to be verified and collated.
“We at NEC understand the impatience to receive definite results. We want to reassure one and all that we will do our best to provide the final certified results as quickly as possible.” She assured.
But she was quick to state that the process will take some time because “the process of retrieval of results is slow, but we are advancing at good speed.”
However, she explained, “because we want to maintain the integrity of the process, we need to maintain the checks and balances to be completely sure that the official results reflect in its entirety the will of the electorate.”
She emphasized that any results presented from Monday on are partial and they should be understood as such and that everyday they will give cumulative results, until the day when the Commission can present 100% of the results.
The Chief Electoral Commissioner said that Results have been received for 11 out of 14 districts and by the end of today it is expected that some more results will have been received from all districts.
1,364 polling station results have been entered into the results database which represents only 22.2% of all polling stations.
She stressed again that the results are very partial results, as there are still 4,793 polling stations pending
The average national turnout is currently 73.4% and that there are 8,965 invalid votes, representing 1.9% of total votes cast.
“This is particularly encouraging so far, as it is lower than the rate of invalid votes for the previous election.” Said Dr Thorpe
Dr Thorpe also announced that the Commission will encourage everyone, but particularly political parties, to check these detailed results with their own copy of the polling station result sheets and come back immediately to the NEC should they find any discrepancy
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