Making the announcement at NEC headquarters, Tower Hill in Freetown, Mohamed N’fah Alie Conteh stated that the final result for the presidential election as collated and counted by NEC indicates that presidential candidate for the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio polled one million and ninety seven thousand, four hundred and eighty-two votes (1,097,482); amounting to 43.3% of the national valid votes cast.

He stated further that presidential candidate for the All People’s Congress (APC) party, Dr. Samura M.W. Kamara polled one million and eighty two thousand, seven hundred and forty-eight (1,082,748); amounting to 42.7% of the total national valid votes cast on the March 7, 2018 elections.

However, the NEC Commissioner and National Returning Officer Mohamed N’fah Alie Conteh mentioned that there was a total of one hundred and thirty-nine thousand, four hundred and twenty-seven (139,427) void votes nationally. Also, the NEC boss stated that two hundred and twenty-one (221) votes were canceled as a result of some electoral malpractices discovered during the counting process.

He then informed his audience that because no single party could get the 55% national votes to win outright, there would be a run-off between the two front-runners SLPP and APC slated for Tuesday, March 27, 2018.

Present at the announcement of the final result were senior NEC officials, United States Ambassador, UK High Commissioner and a host of other dignitaries including EU and AU elections observers, local elections observers and the Fourth Estate.