Sierra Leone opposition chief takes early poll lead

FREETOWN, Sep 10 (Reuters) Sierra Leone's opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma took an early lead today as results trickled in from a presidential run-off, but election monitors denounced cases of cheating in the tense weekend poll.

The elections, the first since UN peacekeepers left two years ago, are seen as a test for the former British colony's recovery from a 1991-2002 civil war funded by diamond fields in the east where rebels plucked gems from the dirt.

With official results in from just over a fifth of polling stations, Koroma of the All People's Congress (APC) was leading on 64 per cent, ahead of Vice-President Solomon Berewa of the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) on 36 percent.

National Electoral Commission (NEC) officials noted that early results came mainly from western Sierra Leone, an APC stronghold. They played down allegations of electoral fraud and praised the peaceful conduct of the polls.

''It is vitally important that this atmosphere of calm be retained during this crucial tallying and announcement of results phase,'' said the head of the commission, Christiana Thorpe at a heavily-guarded news conference.

Full official results were expected to take several days, sowing fears of a return to the violence which marred the campaign, when clashes prevented Koroma from touring the south and east, bastions of SLPP support. Whoever wins the polls will have to address the ethnic rifts revealed by the elections.

OBSERVERS VOICE CONCERN Both foreign and domestic observers noted cases of apparent electoral fraud. The European Union's 77-strong mission said there were more votes than registered voters in some areas, and an ''excessive number'' of additions to registers elsewhere.

The National Election Watch, a civil society coalition that fielded 5,420 observers in polling stations, said Saturday's polls were more orderly than those of the August 11 first round, but said there had been some fraud, including ballot stuffing.

Both candidates' camps have alleged fraud and intimidation during Saturday's vote and each has already rejected results from certain areas they regard as biased towards the other.

The US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) said the polls were ''generally transparent and peaceful'' but voiced concern over reports of intimidation by traditional chiefs and secret societies.

Berewa has the backing of outgoing President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who is standing down under the constitution after two terms.

But his campaign was dealt a blow when Charles Margai, a scion of Sierra Leone's foremost political dynasty who left the SLPP in 2006, backed Koroma after finishing third in the first round.

Koroma, whose APC ruled Sierra Leone as a single-party state in the years leading up to the war, had campaigned on a promise of change amid frustration at rampant corruption and unemployment.

The APC and Margai's People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) won a combined majority in legislative polls also held on August 11.

REUTERS TB RN0208