Some 5 000 polling stations opened across Sierra Leone on Tuesday for the first presidential and parliamentary polls since the end of the west African nation’s bloody 10-year civil war.
Voters were queuing up outside polling stations in the capital Freetown after they opened at 7 am (0700 GMT).
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who is widely tipped to win the presidential poll, was one of the first of the country’s 2,3-million eligible voters to cast a ballot.
The run-up to the polls has been by far the most peaceful in Sierra Leone, which has suffered repeated electoral violence, coups and a bloody civil war launched by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group.
Tuesday’s elections are the first since the formal end of the war in January. Up to 200 000 people were thought to have died, thousands had their limbs amputated or were kidnapped, raped or forcibly enrolled to fight.
The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group, which disarmed after a peace pact signed last year, is contesting the elections as the RUF party (RUFP).
Balloting ends at 5 pm (1700 GMT). – Sapa-AFP