Photo: Reuters
Sierra Leone’s opposition candidate, Julius Maada Bio, has been declared the winner of the run-off presidential election.
Mr Maada Bio is a former soldier who briefly ruled Sierra Leone in 1996.
He won just under 52% of the vote and took the presidential oath in the capital Freetown on Wednesday.
He beat All Peoples Congress candidate Samura Kamara who belongs to the ruling party and is an economist by training.
President Ernest Bai Koroma has stepped down after serving two five-year terms.
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Mr Maada Bio, who is leading the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), lost to Mr Koroma in the last election. But Mr Maada Bio had already ruled the country briefly.
The 53-year-old was part of a group of soldiers who overthrew the government in 1992. Four years later he staged another coup and ruled Sierra Leone between January and March 1996.
Chief Justice Abdulai Charm swore in the new leader along with Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh just hours after the announcement.
Bio pledged to govern for all Sierra Leoneans at the ceremony.
Kamara, who’s APC have been in power for a decade, vowed to contest the result.
In televised address Kamara said: “We dispute the results and we will take legal action to correct them”, adding that the results “do not reflect the party’s many concerns about massive ballot box stuffing, supernumerary votes, and other irregularities”.
Kamara has seven days to petition the west African country’s Supreme Court against the results.
The election is the fourth since Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war ended in 2002.
