Sierra Leone’s election to pick outgoing President Ernest Bai Koroma’s successor will head to a runoff later this month after neither of the two front-runners secured an outright majority in the first round. According to results announced by the Electoral commission in the capital Freetown, opposition leader Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s Party led the field of 16 candidates with 43.3 percent in the first round of the vote, held last Wednesday. Maada Bio, who briefly ruled the West African country as head of a military junta in 1996, will square off against first-round runner-up Samura Kamara of the ruling All People’s Congress, who took 42.7 percent. Commission said the runoff will take place on March 27.
