Salone election ballots counted

Vote counting is under way in Sierra Leone following a high turnout in presidential and parliamentary polls.
The ballots are being counted in public – in full view of the party agents – in the country’s 6,000 polling stations.
Seven presidential candidates are vying to replace Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who is stepping down after serving two terms.
As at press time, about five percent of the votes had been counted with the APC in the lead.
The election is only the second since Sierra Leone emerged in 2001 from a decade-long civil war, during which an estimated 50,000 people were killed.
The previous poll in 2002 was organised by the United Nations, which still had peacekeepers on the ground.
The BBC’s Will Ross in the capital, Freetown, says this time around, Sierra Leonians are running the show and the good news is the process so far has been largely trouble-free.