Sierra Leone votes

Sierra Leone voted to elect a new leader on Saturday. It was the first general election since UN peacekeepers left two years ago and came five years after the end of a civil war that reduced the country to chaos.

Though international assistance has helped restore stability and revive economic growth, the latest polls have thrown a spotlight on the government’s failure to tackle the causes of the 11-year conflict: poverty, corruption and a concentration of power in the capital.

People voted in large numbers, queuing at polling booths from early morning. Early results showed the APC ahead in the capital, Freetown.