The High Court in Sierra Leone has upheld a request by a member of the ruling party for an injunction on Saturday to delay a presidential election run-off that was meant to happen next Tuesday, Reuters news agency reports.
Sierra Leoneans were expected to choose between two presidential candidates in the vote scheduled for March 27 after All People’s Congress Party’s (APC) Dr Samura Kamara and Sierra Leone People’s Party’s (SLPP) Julius Maada Bio failed to garner the expected 55% in the March 7 poll.
Ibrahim Sorie Koroma, a lawyer linked to the ruling APC filed for the injunction on Thursday saying there was evidence of electoral fraud that needed to be investigated before the poll could go ahead.
In the ruling delivered by Justice A. R. Mansaray, the National Electoral Commission chairman and the body are required to withhold conducting the run off poll pending the hearing into the case which is set for Monday 26th March, barely 24 hours to the planned opening of polls.
The africanews.com quotes a local journalist Abdul Tejan Cole as saying chief among the issues to be heard is an audit of the electoral system.
https://twitter.com/atejancole/status/977539142899953665
Lawyer Koroma in his filing had stated that electoral fraud allegations should be investigated before the vote goes ahead.
APC’s Samura Kamara had finished slightly behind opposition SLPP Julius Maada Bio in the first round of the voting on March 7.
