Sierra Leone Result Delayed by 48 hours

Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone’s opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio: leads in the unofficial results tallied at polling stations

The final result of the Sierra Leone presidential run-off election will not be known until Wednesday, according to Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the UN envoy in West Africa.

Chambas told the BBC correspondent that the result will be announced “within the next 48 hours”.

The stalemate between the two political parties as to which system of tallying to use has been resolved, Chambas said.

“It will be a blend of the existing system and the Excel spreadsheet. Tallying which was halted is to resume”, he said.

The two candidates, Samura Kamara of the ruling All Peoples Party(APC) and Julius Maada Bio, of the opposition SLPP have both claimed victory.

Watch SLPP’s video announcing some results on Monday.

According to the result announced, Maada Bio has had 1,162,828 votes out of the 2,149,134 votes cast, representing 54.1 per cent. Kamara has 986,306 votes, representing 45 per cent.

The SLPP has been reporting various harassment of its supporters by state security forces since the end of the poll.