(5 Apr 2018) On April 5th 2018 Sierra Leone's election commission declared main opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio as the West African nation's new president, giving the opposition party its first presidency in 10 years.
Chief Justice Abdulai Charm swore in the new leader along with Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh just hours after the announcement.
Bio pledged to govern for all Sierra Leoneans at the ceremony.
Bio won March 31st's runoff vote with 51.81 percent of valid votes cast, the National Electoral Commission said.
The former military leader running for the Sierra Leone Peoples Party beat ruling party candidate Samura Kamara, who received 48.19 percent of the votes.
More than 2.5 million people, or 81 percent of eligible registered voters, cast ballots in the runoff, said election commission's chairman, Mohamed N'Fah Alie Conteh.
Any registered voter has seven days to petition to the Supreme Court against the results.
This was Bio's second bid for the presidency.
He lost in 2012.
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The newly elected President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, said April 5th that his priority will be to unite Sierra Leoneans.
Speaking to The Associated Press Bio said that everybody should "rest assured that I am not going to do anything against any political party or any individual or anybody that are from regions different to where I come from."
Defeated candidate Samura Kamara, who won 48.19 percent of the votes, said in an interview broadcast on national television that "the results did not reflect the will of the voters." He said his APC party intends to take "appropriate legal action."
"Elections are over," rebutted Bio. "The results have been announced. We should be one country and one people. We should proceed with life as normal. Attacking anybody is not necessarily...is not going to change the result of this election. So, I think this is another opportunity to say to everybody that there's no need for violence, there's no need for attacks, even to accost anybody. What we should be paying attention to is: how can we come back together?"
The runoff vote was delayed by a few days after a ruling party member filed a court challenge alleging irregularities in the first round and a temporary injunction was issued, stalling preparations. The high court later lifted the injunction.
Bio will now lead efforts to continue rebuilding the country after the devastating 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic as well as a deadly mudslide in August 2017 that killed some 1,000 people in the capital, Freetown.
The election was the fourth since Sierra Leone's brutal civil war ended in 2002.
Outgoing President Ernest Bai Koroma had served two terms and was barred by the constitution from running again.
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On April 5th 2018 Sierra Leone's election commission declared main opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio as the West African nation's new president, giving the opposition party its first presidency in 10 years.
Chief Justice Abdulai Charm swore in the new leader along with Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh just hours after the announcement.
Bio pledged to govern for all Sierra Leoneans at the ceremony.
Bio won March 31st's runoff vote with 51.81 percent of valid votes cast, the National Electoral Commission said.
The former military leader running for the Sierra Leone Peoples Party beat ruling party candidate Samura Kamara, who received 48.19 percent of the votes.
More than 2.5 million people, or 81 percent of eligible registered voters, cast ballots in the runoff, said election commission's chairman, Mohamed N'Fah Alie Conteh.
This was Bio's second bid for the presidency.
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