Sierra Leone counts votes in presidential election

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone -- Ballot-counting was under way Sunday in Sierra Leone's first presidential election since U.N. peacekeepers withdrew two years ago -- a vote seen as a test of the country's transition to democratic rule.

Many Sierra Leoneans see the poll as a chance to show that they have finally emerged from a legacy of coups and a decade-long, diamond-fueled war as a multiparty state that can transfer power peacefully.

Seven candidates are vying to succeed President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah. Term limits prevent the 75-year-old leader from running for a third five-year term.

The head of Sierra Leone's electoral commission, Christina Thorpe, said voting finished on time and without incident Saturday at most polling centers, despite rain and long lines.

Still, there were disturbances. Late Saturday, police used tear gas to disperse crowds of youths setting up makeshift roadblocks in a part of eastern Freetown. It was unclear what sparked the incident or whether it was related to the polling.

Thorpe also noted "a small number of violent incidents" in western Freetown, and said polling was delayed in one southern town because of lost ballot boxes.

Results from Saturday's presidential and parliamentary poll will be released progressively, with final tallies within 12 days of voting.

The most crucial period for the war-battered nation may come months down the road, when the public begins expecting real change from a new government. Despite progress since the 10-year war ended in 2002, analysts say many of the root problems that caused the conflict -- corruption, poverty and unemployment -- remain.

"When the euphoria dies down, the public will want to see real change. ... If the new government doesn't perform as people demand, the patience people have shown could run out," said Carolyn Norris, the West Africa director for International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.

Vice President and ruling party candidate Solomon Berewa, 69, is considered the front-runner. His biggest challenger is 54-year-old opposition party chief and businessman Ernest Bai Koroma. Also running is Charles Francis Margai, 62, a lawyer and former minister who heads a party that broke away from the ruling coalition 15 months ago.

Saturday's victor must take more than 55 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off between the top two finishers.

In other races, some 572 contenders vied for 112 parliamentary seats. About 2.6 million of the nation's 5 million people are registered to vote.

The hope is that a peaceful vote will pave the way for development in a country where diamond wealth is difficult to see in fetid slums and dilapidated roads.

Though Sierra Leone's infrastructure has been restored to prewar levels and donors last year forgave $1.6 billion in crippling debt, the country has struggled to fight poverty and corruption.

Officially, Sierra Leone exported $125 million worth of diamonds in 2006. Yet advocacy groups believe real export levels are two to three times that, with smugglers ferreting the gems out of the country clandestinely.

Civil war broke out in Sierra Leone in 1991. Rebels burned villages, raped women, and abducted and drugged children to turn them into teenage fighters. Tens of thousands of civilians died and countless victims live today with the legacy of the rebels' trademark atrocity -- the lopping-off of arms, feet, hands and lips with machetes.

U.N. and British forces defeated the rebellion, and a U.N. force stayed on, swelling to 17,500 troops before departing in December 2005. British troops have helped train a new 17,500-strong army, which, together with 9,500 police, is responsible for national security.

The threat of renewed war is considered remote, and the nation has tried to put its brutal past behind it.

In July, a U.N.-backed war crimes court issued its first sentences on the conflict, handing down half-century jail terms to three former junta leaders. On Aug. 2, two former members of a pro-government group that fought against the rebels were also sentenced for torturing and mutilating civilians.

Sierra Leone has held two elections since the war ended: a presidential vote in 2002 and municipal elections two years later.

Settled two centuries ago by freed slaves from Britain, the United States and Jamaica, Sierra Leone gained independence from Britain in 1961, but suffered a military coup six years later. The last coup occurred in 1997 when a junta briefly took power before a West African intervention force reversed it.