Sierra Leone votes in watershed elections

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FREETOWN, Aug 11 (AFP): Sierra Leone voted Saturday in watershed presidential and parliamentary elections seen as a test of whether the west African nation has turned a page from its decade-long civil war fuelled by blood diamonds.
Long queues of voters started forming as early as two hours before polling stations officially opened at 7:00 am (0700 GMT), although many of the 6,171 polling stations reported some delays in opening. Polls are set to close at 5:00 pm (1700 GMT).
Some 2.6 million registered voters will pick a new president and lawmakers, six years after the end of a brutal civil conflict.
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who led the country for two five-year terms during and after the war, is not eligible to stand again and has backed his vice president.
Seven political parties are fielding candidates, but the real battle is between the two main parties that have ruled the country the longest since independence from Britain in 1961.
Vice President Solomon Berewa of the governing Sierra Leone's People's Party (SLPP) is facing a serious challenge from Ernest Koroma, leader of the opposition All People's Congress (APC).
If none of the presidential hopefuls garners at least 55 per cent of the ballots cast a second round of voting is to be organised within two weeks.
Legislators are elected by a simple majority, and 566 candidates are in the race for 112 seats in the single chamber parliament.
The elections are only the second since Sierra Leone emerged from one of the most brutal wars in modern history and the first poll the country has organised after the departure of 17,500 UN peacekeepers in 2005.
A civil war ravaged Sierra Leone between 1991-2001, claiming 120,000 lives, while hundreds of thousands of survivors suffered horrors at the hands of Revolutionary United Front rebels, financed by so-called blood diamonds.