‘Accept poll results’

FREETOWN – President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah urged all parties on Wednesday to accept the results of Sierra Leone’s runoff, as the opposition candidate maintained a strong lead with half the votes counted.

“There will be no winners and we will all be losers if the country is plunged into chaos just after the final results,” Kabbah said in a radio message. Opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma had about 57 per cent of the 989,130 valid votes counted so far, compared with 43 per cent for Vice President Solomon Berewa of the ruling party, electoral commission chief Christiana Thorpe said.The results were based on 51 per cent of ballots counted from Saturday’s vote, Thorpe said.The West African nation is still struggling to recover from a devastating decade-long war that ended in 2002, leaving tens of thousands of civilians dead and countless others without limbs after rebels hacked them off.Though rich in diamonds, most Sierra Leoneans remain poor and unemployed, and corruption is rampant.- Nampa-APOpposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma had about 57 per cent of the 989,130 valid votes counted so far, compared with 43 per cent for Vice President Solomon Berewa of the ruling party, electoral commission chief Christiana Thorpe said.The results were based on 51 per cent of ballots counted from Saturday’s vote, Thorpe said.The West African nation is still struggling to recover from a devastating decade-long war that ended in 2002, leaving tens of thousands of civilians dead and countless others without limbs after rebels hacked them off.Though rich in diamonds, most Sierra Leoneans remain poor and unemployed, and corruption is rampant.- Nampa-AP