Early lead for S Leone opposition

Ernest Bai Koroma (L) beat Solomon Berewa in the first round

The first official results in Sierra Leone's presidential run-off show an early lead for opposition candidate Ernest Bai Koroma.

The All People's Congress leader has 64% of the vote so far ahead of Vice-President Solomon Berewa with 36%.

The results from about 20% of the total are from areas where the APC is stronger than the governing Sierra Leone People's Party.

In rural areas where the SLPP is strong results will take several days.

Final results are not expected for some 12 days.

The BBC's West Africa correspondent Will Ross says that although there is still a long way to go there was little to celebrate from these first results for the governing party.

This was Sierra Leone's first election since the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers - a particularly brutal civil war ended in 2002.

Foreign election observers praised the absence of violence during voting.

The national electoral commission, widely praised for its "fair and transparent" conduct of the election, has appealed for all sides to stay calm at this crucial time.

Ballot stuffing

European Union observers commended the Electoral Commission but pointed out what appeared to be some rather clumsy attempts at cheating at a few polling stations in governing party strongholds.

Authorities have been praised for their running of the polls

"We have some polling stations with 100% turnout and much more and that's why we are asking the National Election Commission to investigate in those places, in those polling stations, because something is wrong there," said the head of the EU team, Marie Anne Isler-Beguin.

Observers from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) also gave a largely positive assessment but noted the suspicious turnout of around 100% at 14 polling stations.

In all there were more than 6,000 polling stations - with an average turnout of 73%.

Abdul Fatau Musah, an observer from the regional body, Ecowas, said he could not confirm reports that election agents from Mr Koroma's All People's Congress (APC) were prevented from entering polling stations in the south-eastern Kailahun district.

"We have no conclusive evidence of this but there are strong allegations," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

Local monitoring body National Election Watch (NEW) reported some cases of ballot-stuffing, among other incidents.

Our reporter says that whoever wins, the new president will have the task of uniting a country which has, to a certain extent, been divided by this whole closely fought election.