Bio secures second term as Sierra Leone leader.

Julius Maada Bio, Sierra Leone’s president, secured a second term in office after winning a contest dominated by voter concerns over spiralling inflation in the west African nation. Mohamed Konneh, chair of the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone, announced that Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s party had taken 56.2 per cent of the vote while his main challenger, Samura Kamara of the All People’s Congress, had garnered 41.2 per cent. Candidates needed more than 55 per cent of the first round vote to avoid a runoff. The opposition has contested the results. “These results are not credible and I categorically reject the outcome so announced by the electoral commission,” Kamara said on Twitter after the announcement of final results.

The APC said its offices were attacked on Sunday night, adding that the police fired tear gas and live bullets, with a spokesman saying one woman died. Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, a leading APC figure running for a second term as mayor of Freetown, posted pictures on Twitter showing people on the floor inside the party headquarters. “We are under fire. It is tear gas and what sounds like live rounds. There are about 20 of us on the ground in one office,” she wrote. Sierra Leone Police said in a statement that its officers “had to fire tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd which was harassing people on the road”. They added that a “huge crowd” of APC members had held a procession through Freetown “announcing to the public that they had won”.

The minister of internal affairs, who oversees security forces, did not respond to requests for comment. International observers faulted parts of the electoral process. The EU’s observer mission said “voters’ commitment to a democratic process [had been] challenged by violence and lack of transparency at critical stages of elections”. The Carter Center, the Atlanta-based NGO founded by former US president Jimmy Carter whose observers monitored the process across Sierra Leone, said the tabulation of results “lacked adequate levels of transparency”.

It said its staff witnessed “instances of broken seals and inappropriately open ballot boxes” in three of five tally centres.  With inflation hitting 43 per cent in April, the campaign was largely focused on economic concerns in the west African country of 8.4mn people. Nationwide protests against climbing costs descended into violence that killed scores of people last August. Police were accused of being heavy-handed in their response by rights groups.