The opposition frontrunner in Sierra Leone’s presidential election cut short a campaigning tour on Friday after his convoy was attacked by stone-throwing pro-government supporters, witnesses said.
Ernest Bai Koroma, who finished ahead in the August 11 first round of voting, accused the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) of outgoing President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of trying to derail the election, before a run-off vote on September 8.
A Reuters reporter travelling with Koroma’s All People’s Congress (APC) convoy said SLPP militants used bottles, sticks, stones and spades to attack APC supporters on Thursday as they drove through two south-eastern towns, Segbwema and Kenema.
Police escorting the convoy had to fire tear gas to force a passage through roadblocks put up by SLPP supporters. Koroma abandoned his vehicle after its windows were smashed by stones and its tyres punctured by nails.
”It’s all just part of a grand design to delay the elections,” Koroma, who faces SLPP vice-president Solomon Berewa in the run-off, told Reuters.
SLPP officials rejected Koroma’s accusation. Kabbah said this week he would declare a state of emergency if clashes between rival supporters worsened.
Koroma returned to the capital, Freetown, on Friday under armed guard to attend a meeting about the violence with election officials and representatives of political parties.
”We are on the winning side and we don’t want to give them an excuse to declare a state of emergency,” Koroma said.
Koroma said three supporters were injured in the rioting, which continued when SLPP militants besieged the hotel where he was staying in the southern town of Bo. Police said they fired shots into the air to disperse the rioters.
These are the first elections in the former British colony since United Nations peacekeepers left the country two years after a 1991 to 2002 civil war, one of Africa’s most brutal conflicts. — Reuters