ERNEST KOROMA : FAVOURITE TO WIN ELECTIONS
S.Leone on edge as presidential vote count starts
Sat Sep 8, 2007 2:23PM EDT
By Katrina Manson
FREETOWN, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Sierra Leoneans waited anxiously as counting began after runoff presidential polls on Saturday, fearful of clashes between rival political supporters after a vote in which both sides complained of intimidation.
Voting appeared to have passed off peacefully for the most part but there were isolated scuffles in the capital Freetown and the opposition said its officials had been blocked from reaching polling booths in one part of the remote east.
Military police armed with teargas were called in to one polling station in Freetown as the polls closed to disperse an angry crowd which gathered amid suspicions that electoral documents had gone missing.
“When the results come the parties will clash unless they make security very tight,” said Ima Kobai, 26, one of the few shopkeepers to have opened in Freetown, bolting her door as people ran down the street to avoid any violence.
A Reuters witness earlier saw police uncover a stash of bottles and rocks in the back of one car they searched.
The elections, the first since U.N. peacekeepers withdrew two years ago, are billed as a test of the West African nation’s recovery from a 1991-2002 civil war, in which civilians were mutilated and children were drugged and forced to fight.
Rival groups of ex-combatants have clashed with guns and machetes in the former British colony since the first round on Aug. 11 in which opposition candidate Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People’s Congress (APC) took 44 percent.
His rival in the runoff, Vice-President Soloman Berewa of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), polled 38 percent in the first round.
KOROMA FAVOURITE
Voting appeared orderly in much of Freetown, but the opposition said the situation was less calm around the eastern town of Kailahun near the border with Liberia, which saw some of the heaviest fighting during the war.
“We are very concerned about the situation in Kailahun … We have not succeeded in getting our agents to the polling stations. They feared for their lives and could not go out,” Koroma said after voting in Goderich, just outside Freetown.
“The people of this country will react to an election that is not credible,” he said.
Berewa, voting in the capital, said he would step down quietly if voted out and said the situation appeared to be more peaceful after sporadic violence during the campaign.
Koroma is favourite to win Saturday’s election after third-placed candidate Charles Margai of the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), who split with the SLPP in 2006, threw his support behind him.
Koroma’s APC party has already won legislative polls which took place on Aug. 11 amid disillusionment with outgoing President Tejan Kabbah’s failure to curb rampant corruption and reduce unemployment of more than 60 percent.
Kabbah, reelected amid postwar euphoria in 2002, is standing down as required by the constitution after two 5-year terms.
Chris Fomunyoh of the U.S.-funded National Democratic Institute’s (NDI) observer mission said it was too soon to give the polls a clean bill of health, adding observers were looking into the opposition accusations in the east.
“It is too early in the process to make judgement calls. We have to wait for the crucial vote counting and announcement of results to be able to pronounce on the process,” he said.
Subject: Re: Election report
From: fact
To: All
Date Posted: 14:23:52 09/08/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198
Message:
are there any observers in segbwema, kailahun and daru? are these guys just farting in freetown?
Subject: Re: Election report
From: Observer
To: All
Date Posted: 14:16:10 09/08/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ppp-68-91-33-198.dsl.rcsntx.swbell.net at 68.91.33.198
Message:
Now, had this been a Cocorioko report, then fingers would be pointing at Kabs Kanu.
Take note.
Subject: ELECTION NEWS FROM KAILAHUN?
From: max vandy
To: All
Date Posted: 13:50:17 09/08/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: pool-71-247-164-81.nycmny.east.verizon.net at 71.247.164.81
Message:
Are there any reports about voting in the East and South especially that flashpoint, my home district Kailahun. I couldn’t reach my folks in Segbwema all day. If you have heard anything, please post
Subject: Re: ELECTION NEWS FROM KAILAHUN?
From: DA POLO DON COMOT
To: All
Date Posted: 17:28:02 09/08/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198
Message:
Da PORO don commot en dem don cut all telephone circuits to segbwema
Subject: Polls
From: Jack
To: All
Date Posted: 13:36:31 09/08/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: 65-78-54-33.c3-0.upd-ubr7.trpr-upd.pa.cable.rcn.com at 65.78.54.33
Message:
According to BBC focus on Africa, all is calm in Freetown, Bo, Kono and Makeni. The process was a little slow, but most important it is free and fair.Kudos to both parties.
Over to you Kabs.
Subject: Re: Polls
From: Tamba Moiwo
To: All
Date Posted: 13:44:28 09/08/07 ()
Email Address: [email protected]
Entered From: host86-132-124-252.range86-132.btcentralplus.com at 86.132.124.252
Message:
KABS DOES NOT LISTEN TO OR READ ANY OTHER NEWS EXCEPT HIS PARTY RAG.FULL OF LIES AND DAMN UGLY LIES.
HE IS A VERY VERY VERY OBJECTIVE BROTHER.OH! HAVE RUN OUT OF SUPERLATIVES.
Subject: Re: Polls
From: max vandy
To: All
Date Posted: 14:01:14 09/08/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: pool-71-247-164-81.nycmny.east.verizon.net at 71.247.164.81
Message:
Oh brother. Tamba please calm down and enjoy the afternoon. Chill out bro, you are a wonderful poster. No need to go ballistic on Kabs for reporting the facts coming in. For all the scorn you Slippers have been orchestrating against Kabs, everything he has reported in the past has been proven true by objective observers. So lay off the good rev, bro.
Subject: Re: Polls
From: Saidu Daphay Turay
To: All
Date Posted: 13:54:22 09/08/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: pool-70-108-205-198.washdc.east.verizon.net at 70.108.205.198
Message:
Moiwo,
Why should Kabs listen to a foreign news organ that doesn’t give you details of happenings on the ground, only to receieve scoops from “them say” who are given few leones to gather unauthenticated news. Cocorioko- a home grown news organs provides incentives and receives from reliable sources even within the SLPP opportunists about the clandestine and diabolical plans which your party has initiated as evident with pictorials which BBC can not provide in their lofty hotels.
Subject: Re: Polls
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 13:59:39 09/08/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: h167-156-253.63.chubb.com at 167.156.63.253
Message:
Tenki ya, me broder, Saidu.And we also provide pictures too. We have pictures for whatever we publish.We are not like Tamba Moiwo and his New People rag sheet who steal pictures from Cocorioko and just publish nonsense and lies.
The SLPP North American Branch said we had done a great job.
Subject: Re: Polls
From: Tamba Moiwo
To: All
Date Posted: 14:06:12 09/08/07 ()
Email Address: [email protected]
Entered From: host86-132-124-252.range86-132.btcentralplus.com at 86.132.124.252
Message:
IF YOU NAR SAIDU ‘MOSCOW’ AR NOR SURPRISED!!!!BICOS DIS NAR APC PAPER INNA ALL KIN SAY ALL KAN ROTO RATA.
SO WHEN THE NEC SAID THEY WERE SATISFIED WITH THE VIOLENT-FREE CONDUCT OF THE RUN-OFF YOU WERE NOT SATISFIED-YOU ALWAYS WANT TO BECOME THE NEWS.AS A REPOTER, YOU MUST NOT BE THE NEWS.
YOU KNOW THE QUALITY OF NEW PEOPLE IS HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE THIS ‘SH..’
YOU GUYS ARE CRYING WOLF WOLF ALL THE TIME.GO LAPLAND REVO!!
Subject: Re: Polls
From: Tamba Woyo
To: All
Date Posted: 14:21:40 09/08/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: c-69-140-34-194.hsd1.md.comcast.net at 69.140.34.194
Message:
“YOU KNOW THE QUALITY OF NEW PEOPLE IS HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE THIS ‘SH..”
Did you meant NEW PUPU because that what you tribal maggots are,and guess what maggots can be found on “PUPU”,thats the rational behind the name NEW PUPU.
Subject: Re: Polls
From: Shameful liar
To: All
Date Posted: 14:10:32 09/08/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: h167-156-253.63.chubb.com at 167.156.63.253
Message:
Tamba, I thought you were to be taken seriously until you compared that kaka paper to the great cocorioko
Subject: Re: Polls
From: Tamba Moiwo
To: All
Date Posted: 13:44:05 09/08/07 ()
Email Address: [email protected]
Entered From: host86-132-124-252.range86-132.btcentralplus.com at 86.132.124.252
Message:
KABS DOES NOT LISTEN TO OR READ ANY OTHER NEWS EXCEPT HIS PARTY RAG.FULL OF LIES AND DAMN UGLY LIES.
HE IS A VERY VERY VERY OBJECTIVE BROTHER.OH HAVE RUN OUT OF SUPERLATIVES.
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